CAPTAIN DAVE SUTTON ON SALTWATER FISHING WITH SPIKE-IT
Spike-It for Speckled Trout
 EDITOR'S
NOTE: Captain Dave Sutton of Homestead, Florida, a fishing
guide in the Everglades National Park, Biscayne Bay
National Park and the Upper Florida Keys, takes anglers
to permit, tarpon, redfish, snook, speckled trout, dolphin,
wahoo, grouper and snapper. Sutton, who has fished these
waters for 16 years and has guided for the last 6 years,
has discovered that using the new Spike-It products
for these saltwater fish pays off for him.
Many of my charters are families, and often dads want
to take their sons or daughters with them. I really
enjoy those kinds of trips. On this particular day,
I had a father and daughter fishing together who wanted
to catch speckled trout. Speckled trout are really good
eating and are very common in our area. Many of our
anglers like to target these fish because they know
when they go out to catch  speckled
trout, they'll usually catch numbers of them. The father
had told me, "Make sure you bring plenty of live
shrimp." So I brought 6 dozen live shrimp for his
and his daughter's fishing.
We went out into a little basin just outside the Everglades
National Park, and I rigged the dad and his daughter
up with popping corks, circle hooks and live shrimp.
The father looked at me and asked, "Aren't you
going to fish?" I replied, "Okay, I'll cast
a few times." Now, the man and his daughter were
catching 15- to 17-inch trout on almost every cast.
I finally picked up my spinning rod with a Spike-It
Opening Night-colored jerkbait on it, which is kind
of white, but a little  cloudy.
About 18 inches up the line, I'd pinched on a 1/8-ounce
bullet-head sinker. Then when I twitched the bait, I
could drop my rod tip, and the bait would fall. I cast
and immediately started catching trout. Instead of catching
15- to 17-inch fish like the father and his daughter
were catching, the trout I was catching on the Spike-It
Opening Night jerkbait were all 19- to 22-inch speckled
trout that would weigh 3-1/2- to 4 pounds each, which
were really nice-sized specks for our region of the
country.
Finally the little girl looked at her dad and said,
"Gee, Dad. Can I use one of those lures like Captain
Dave is using?" I handed my rod to the little girl
and showed her how to fish the Spike-It jerkbait. She
quickly began catching big trout - much bigger trout
than her dad was catching on the live shrimp. After
she'd caught three or four really-nice trout, the dad
looked at me and said, "Okay, Captain. Give me
a bait like my daughter's using. Rig me up like she's
fishing. I want to catch some of those big trout, too."
I rigged him up, but
instead of putting an Opening Night jerkbait on his
line, I tied on a 4-inch Boottail Minnow. Instantly
he began to catch the bigger trout too. After we had
culled our fish, both of them had their limits of speckled
trout with all the fish over 19-inches long. I learned
on that day that yes, you could catch speckled trout
on live shrimp. However, in a side-by-side comparison,
we caught bigger trout with the Spike-It bait than we
did on the live shrimp.
For more information on how you can fish with Captain
Dave Sutton, contact him at djsutton@bellsouth.net or
go to www.saltwaterflyfisherman.com.
To learn more about Spike-It's top-quality lures, paints
and other fishing products and the Color-C-Lector, go
to www.ISpikeIt.com
TOMORROW: TARPON WITH SPIKE-IT
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