On days with decent weather conditions or better, fishing for autumn speckled trout is often so easy, it’s almost like cheating. That’s because Mother Nature plays a cruel joke on baitfish and shrimp, sucking them out of backwater marshes right at the time when specks have flooded interior bays, lakes and bayous.

For the fish, it’s an all-you-can-eat buffet, and with rapid growth high on their agenda, they never seem to get full.

That means just about anything an angler throws will get inhaled, but of course, the trick is to find where those fish are meeting the hapless baitfish and shrimp.

There are likely areas all over the coast. Wherever runouts from marshes meet bayous or bayous meet major lakes and bays, specks are liable to by lying in wait for the prey that doesn’t have a prayer. In these spots, anglers can stay on their trolling motors and fan cast, all while keeping an eye out for slicks and other signs of terrified baitfish and shrimp.

Or they can just watch for diving birds. Seagulls help anglers pinpoint schools of fish, and because water temperatures are cooling, those feeding fish are less likely to be undesirables like hardheads and gafftops. Find birds dipping on fleeing white shrimp, and you’ll often catch your limit on 25 casts.

On my last trip, the fishing wasn’t quite that good, but it was close. I put myself in an area I expected to see diving birds, and although I had to move a couple times to locate them, I finally hit pay dirt, and got on a great autumn bite.

Check out the video for all the details.

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