What is your experience: artificials vs live shrimp and big trout?

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SmileDoc
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What is your experience: artificials vs live shrimp and big trout?

Post by SmileDoc »

I have used artificials, mainly Bass Assassins, for years and have caught my fair share of little trout. But I have also caught many more large trout as compared to what I typically see at the cleaning stands.

Have you found that live shrimp seems to catch more smaller trout as a rule, vs bigger trout on artificials?
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Re: What is your experience: artificials vs live shrimp and big trout?

Post by bigtrout »

I love to fish with artificials. have caught more big trout with artificials than live bait. Seems to me that just about any type of fish will hit live bait mainly small fish or crabs. If i am catching small trout I just try to cover more water. One thing that I like to do with artificials is troll to find the fish.
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Re: What is your experience: artificials vs live shrimp and big trout?

Post by troutslinger »

I fish artificial all the time. I've caught small trout and I've caught big trout. I've also seen 9+lb trout caught with live shrimp too.
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Re: What is your experience: artificials vs live shrimp and big trout?

Post by SmileDoc »

It has been my biased opinion by current experience that artificials will catch more bigger trout, but I am biased because that is all I fish with. My childhood memories are of live shrimp and never catching a big trout ('60's & '70's). So I will keep my cash and not fund the live shrimp guys!
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Re: What is your experience: artificials vs live shrimp and big trout?

Post by troutslinger »

I'm biased too. If I'm catching small trout on artificials and the guy next to me is catching trophys on live shrimp so be it.
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Re: What is your experience: artificials vs live shrimp and big trout?

Post by Kayak Kid »

During the famous "giant trout run" of 67/68 at the Galveston jetties, I caught some giant trout using giant live shrimp. I switched totally to artificial (spoons) in 73, and, proceeded to catch my share of legal trout and reds. Use a fly rod now, and, still catch a nice fish now and then.

What does all of that mean? Darned if I know.
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Re: What is your experience: artificials vs live shrimp and big trout?

Post by troutslinger »

We had a house in Matagorda from the 60's to late 90's and back in the day when I was a kid me and my dad, uncles and grandparents caught big trout on live shrimp so yes live shrimp does catch big trout.
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Re: What is your experience: artificials vs live shrimp and big trout?

Post by JMS »

I switched to 100% artificial when I got my Kayak seems easier that way. To each their own


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Re: What is your experience: artificials vs live shrimp and big trout?

Post by redneckyakclub01 »

As trout age, their diet changes. Read the first three sentences under license history here:
http://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/species/strout/

Does that mean that a big trout won't eat a shrimp? Of course not. However, it's no not accident that the big trout guys almost exclusively throw large, fish imitating lures like Corkies and topwaters.

Here is my general trout plan. I don't use live shrimp anymore because i think that gulp work just as good and come in more colors. I catch more numbers that way but generally smaller fish. Next is a 3-4" paddle tail or a spoon, still good numbers and better fish. Next is a 5-6" weightless jerkbait, better fish still and most of my 23"+ trout. Then Corkies and big topwaters.

This is a general statement and of course has exceptions. My only 30" trout came on a 3" assasin paddletail bitten down to about 2.5 " so, anything is possible.
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Re: What is your experience: artificials vs live shrimp and big trout?

Post by Tombo »

Couple years ago I attended the CCA banquet for the winners of Star contest. One of the trout winners used a shrimp hooked with no weight letting it drift with the current. Problem with shrimp is everything eats it and gets expensive.
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Re: What is your experience: artificials vs live shrimp and big trout?

Post by TroutSupport.com »

While big trout prefer fin fish... they still won't pass up a live shrimp.. There have been some PIGS (uh.. 9-10 lb pigs) caught in east Matty this last month.. on live shrimp. For one reason is that the fish have pulled out deep following the brown shrimp. it's typical for this time of year.

I prefer to hunt with arties

For those of you that love live shrimp... you should check out Marker 54's hard shrimp.. It's the most realistic action artificial shrimp I've seen yet.
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Re: What is your experience: artificials vs live shrimp and big trout?

Post by Yaklash »

There are a few things at play - one, the tendencies of trout relative to their size and the other, the time of year.

The biggest trout I've ever had on a hook (lost her at the net, but likely pushing 10 lbs), was on a jumbo live shrimp, free-lined under the SLP bridge. I have also caught more than a few 5-6 pounders at the jetties on both small and large live shrimp free-lined. But I have caught more big ones on piggie perch and croaker. Which is saying something because I put many more hours in fishing live shrimp in my youth than I did croaker and piggies. BTW, if I had to pick one bait to beat all others for big trout, in a place where I knew they were at or likely to be, it would be a Piggy Perch 4"-5" long.

What I've learned over the years is that, the bigger a trout gets, the less it works for its calories. Whereas a 16"-20" trout may go chasing shrimp and finger mullet all over an area the size of your house on a particular feeding session, a big trout will most often sit and wait for its meals to come to them. They may move a short distance or trail something for a bit, but generally, they move less to eat than smaller trout. And big trout want as many calories per meal as possible, so they tend to go after bigger bites - whether that be a 5" mullet or a 6" long jumbo shrimp. But like Troutsupport wrote, they do prefer finfish.

During the winter, the bigger trout become almost lethargic, depending on water temps, so they work even less, and they have little else to eat other than mullet because shrimp and some other bait-fish have left the bays.

So when targeting big trout in the winter, you are better off either using mullet imitation lures....or live mullet. The rest of the year, you can go with a lot of different lure types, or different live or natural baits.

The biggest advantage in favor of lures for me is that I don't have to worry about my lures dying and I can cover far more water with lures.
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Re: What is your experience: artificials vs live shrimp and big trout?

Post by troutslinger »

Well said Tobin and yaklash!!
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Re: What is your experience: artificials vs live shrimp and big trout?

Post by CaptJack »

I'm from Bellaire/Houston/Surfside
grew up bay fishing in Galveston, East, West, Christmas bays
and the surf along Galveston to Surfside
caught many schoolies on live shrimp under a poppin' cork in the bays & Galveston jetties
but i've probably never caught a trout bigger than 4# on a live shrimp
all of my big trout have been on artificial
my biggest trout was a 8#/28" i caught skipping a gold spoon out over the 3rd sandbar
sitting on my surfboard on a lazy August afternoon in '69
we had been surfing down by Mitchell's water tower on the west end of Galveston and the surf went flat
we always take our trout rods with us when we go surfing
i only estimated her weight. i put two marks on the rear bumper of the car and measured it when i got home
we ate her right there on the beach
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Re: What is your experience: artificials vs live shrimp and big trout?

Post by capt carl »

I have caught 3 fish over 8lbs 2 on live bait 1 on arty the live bait fish were before i was 40 for the last 34 years i have only fish arty.my biggest fish was over 10 lbs and came on a green flake sea eel.It was my first trip in a kayak.It was a cheap kayak 2 weeks later I bought a outback as i was hooked from the first.That fish was caught on the Seabrook flats ,now you know why i was so made when they pulled all the old piling out
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Re: What is your experience: artificials vs live shrimp and big trout?

Post by troutslinger »

I hear ya about seabrook flats!!
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Re: What is your experience: artificials vs live shrimp and big trout?

Post by SmileDoc »

Thanks for all the great replies.

This weekend fishing Rockport, I caught 8 trout 22-23", 1-21", 3-19ers, 1-18, and 1 15"er; all on bass assassins or provokers. I just feel that I would had caught many more smaller trout had I been using live shrimp.

But the problem is that I will probably not switch back unless I take my kids...so I guess I'll never know! http://www.texaskayakfisherman.com/foru ... a7c2ee6ca3#
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Re: What is your experience: artificials vs live shrimp and big trout?

Post by troutslinger »

I hear ya. I only get live bait when my wife goes.
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Re: What is your experience: artificials vs live shrimp and big trout?

Post by Yaklash »

I agree that live bait is mostly for when the children or non-committed spouse is along, but there are also a few other scenarios where I will go live bait. One, if I am a guest on a guided trip with someone who wants to use live bait, or when I am taking guests on a guided trip that prefer to use live bait. Also, there are some areas of structure or specific locations where it is just better to throw live piggies (jetties or outside the Moses Gate).
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Re: What is your experience: artificials vs live shrimp and big trout?

Post by The Angler »

The most recent world record trout was caught on live mullet, and a 3 time winner of a statewide anglers rodeo (trout division ) has won solely on live finfish; no surprise there as the bait they're using is the same thing we're imitating with our lures, and big trout are known to be some of the most discerning eaters in our inshore waters.
For me, it comes down to covering more water with lures; if I'm fishing with bait, I'm always worried that I might be fishing dead water and not being efficient with my time.
With lures on the other hand, each cast, whether it yields a fish, or not, is a productive cast giving me a better idea ,through process of elimination , where the fish are, or are not, but once you find , or know the specific area that fish are holding, then live bait might be the way to go...


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Re: What is your experience: artificials vs live shrimp and big trout?

Post by ThePopinCorkKid »

I have caught all my 20" plus trout on artificials.
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Re: What is your experience: artificials vs live shrimp and big trout?

Post by Only1Lee »

All the trout over 20" I've ever caught (except maybe 2-3 waaayyyy back before the yak) 26" being the largest; have been on top waters or 5"-6" swimbaits.

But I'm no expert, I just fish....a lot....
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Re: What is your experience: artificials vs live shrimp and big trout?

Post by TroutSupport.com »

Yaklash wrote:I agree that live bait is mostly for when the children or non-committed spouse is along, but there are also a few other scenarios where I will go live bait. One, if I am a guest on a guided trip with someone who wants to use live bait, or when I am taking guests on a guided trip that prefer to use live bait. Also, there are some areas of structure or specific locations where it is just better to throw live piggies (jetties or outside the Moses Gate).
Well said Yaklash.

Also, in reply to others... some, if not most, of the time... the reason people catch dinks on shrimp is not because they are using shrimp, but because they aren't targeting the bigger fish where the bigger fish live. Sometimes we do that by accident, but once we learn where they live we can target that specifically.
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Re: What is your experience: artificials vs live shrimp and big trout?

Post by SmileDoc »

Excellent point Tobin. All of my recent big trout, 20-24", have come from the shallow and very shallow grass beds an potholes. Knee to mid thigh deep at the most. When I wade out further I find the smaller 15-16"ers, and waist to chest deep I find the 10-14" over the deeper grass beds. In my younger life when I did fish with live shrimp, I always cast as far as I could away from the shoreline. I would never be casting within 15 yards and 20" deep water. But that is where I with artificials catch the bigger trout.

Hmmmmmm!!!
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Re: What is your experience: artificials vs live shrimp and big trout?

Post by Bassboy1992 »

You'll catch MORE fish on shrimp. The problem is that every single fish that sees the shrimp will eat the shrimp. And if they don't get hooked, they'll steal your bait.

You can cover much more ground (water?) with artificial baits. Personally, I enjoy using the 3-5" Gulp shrimp. Any color works. You can throw them long distances, accurately, and cover a ton of water. With live shrimp you've got to be careful not to throw them off the hook. You've got to constantly re-bait. Constantly remove little 8" trout. With gulp, while you'll still catch your fair share of little guys, you have your hook in the water 3x as often as a live shrimp.

That's just my $0.02 on the matter. Gulp shrimp > finger mullet > live shrimp (or mullet > gulp > live if you're ONLY targeting large fish).

Now if it comes to sheepshead.... live shrimp. But that's a different topic.

- Chase
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