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Big Sea Trout From Indian River Lagoon
Nice catches of Sea Trout have been made recently on Florida's central east coast waters, especially the Indian River Lagoon system. Last week Pete Christy of NYC was fishing with longtime light tackle guide Frank Catino of Satellite Beach when he boated a 12 pound trout. Catino had taken Christy and Jim Golden to a section of the IRL near Fort Pierce where he knew there were some large Snook.
Early in the day they both took some nice trout in the four to six pound range and a few Redfish.
Christy and Golden were fishing MirrOlure twitch-baits on 15 lb. test spinning rods. About 3:30PM, on an incoming tide and crystal clear water they were fisihing a series of sand holes in about four feet of water. When the fish hit, all three thought it was a big Snook. It fought like a snook as Christy worked it into the boat until the knew it was a really big trout. Knowing it was a huge female and probably carrying roe, they quickly weighted and measured it on a BogaGrip,
snapped a couple pictures and gently released it back into the water. It swam away strongly.
In the 1950s and 60s and 70s when the IRL system was billed as the Seatrout Capttal of the World, 12 and 13 pounders were always possible. Today, such monsters are mere memories for the most part. The largest trout recognized by the IGFA is 17lb.-7oz. taken by Craig Carson in 1995 was taken in the IRL near Ft. Pierce near to where Christy took his prize.
Bill H
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