Night Fishing for Speckled Trout

EDITOR'S NOTE: To take the biggest fish of your life on fly tackle, fish with Captain Cliff Jones, one of only two fly-fishing guides in Orange Beach, Alabama. Or, if you want to catch speckled trout at night under the lights and experience an altogether different form of fly-fishing, head to Orange Beach now.

QUESTION: Let's talk about your night speckled trout fishing. When, where and how do you do it?

ANSWER: I start in April when the fish show up at night and fish all the way for trout into winter. I'll be fishing around lighted piers and docks at night, finding concentrations of bait and tidal flow. You'll catch more trout if you know the migratory patterns of those fish. Just follow where they go, and approach them with 6- or 8-weight tackle, using light-colored flies like white and chartreuse.

QUESTION: Are you sight fishing?

ANSWER: Very much so.

QUESTION: How big a speckled trout will you catch at night?

ANSWER: My biggest fish so far at night weighed 6 pounds, 7 ounces.

QUESTION: What's an average night like?

ANSWER: It depends. Sometimes you can catch several nice trout, or you may catch large quantities of small trout. The size of trout you take depends on the bait hatches: what baits have hatched and what fish are where.

QUESTION: What do you average catching in a night?

ANSWER: That number and size of trout varies, depending on the tidal flow and the time of night. Generally I catch anywhere from a few nice trout fish to a limit.

QUESTION: Most of your fly-fisherman practice catch-and- release, right?

ANSWER: Most of them do. But often they'll keep a snapper or a speckled trout to eat.

QUESTION: With the snapper, you can keep catching and releasing until you just get tired of catching them, can't you?

ANSWER: Well, until you're tired of catching them or you wear your tackle out.

QUESTION: You can break fly rods down here on some of these big snapper, can't you?

ANSWER: You certainly can. Snapper are tough on fly rods.

QUESTION: Most people have never fished for snapper with flies, have they?

ANSWER: No, most people haven't.

QUESTION: These oil and gas rigs get beat up pretty regularly during the weekend in the summer, don't they?

ANSWER: They do. There'll be a lot of boat traffic around them.

QUESTION: But because you're using extremely light line and/or fly tackle, and different techniques, you can still catch these fish that have wised-up to regular tackle.

ANSWER: Correct.

For more information on saltwater fly-fishing, contact Captain Cliff Jones at P.O. Box 1027, Orange Beach, AL 36561, (334) 981-1827, or e-mail himÿat nautico@gulftel.com. You also can visit his website at www.offshoreflyfishing.com.

Tomorrow: Fly-Fishing For Kingfish And Cobia