Edited by: Kenneth Reaves
Reviewed by: Michael DarmontLast Update:
The Rundown
Best Overall: Mirrolure Mirrodine
“The most versatile lure with the most control that is an excellent choice for any inshore saltwater fish.”
Best Budget Option: Berkley Johnson Silver Minnow
“Always a classic, this spoon is an exceptional trout lure that can stand up to their aggressive strikes and toothy mouths. “
Best Premium Option: Bass Assassin Saltwater Sea Shad
“A fantastic shallow-water option for mimicking wounded needlefish and lizardfish.”
Across the Southeastern United States, fishermen target speckled sea trout thanks to their tasty meat, accessibility, and explosive topwater strikes. They tend to hit a wide variety of lures and are aggressive by nature, making them both an easier fish to target and a ton of fun on the end of your line.
The best speckled trout lures mimic forage fish and shrimp that the trout normally prey on. They have quick darting actions and make it hard for trout to resist striking at them.
We’ve put this list together to give you some great consistent options of lures for catching speckled trout. You’ll be able to make an informed purchase before your next trip, and even pick up some tips on how to work the lures and when the fish should bite.
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Table of Contents
Best Speckled Trout Lures in 2024
Here’s our shortlist for the best speckled trout lures:
- Best Overall: Mirrolure Mirrodine
- Best Budget Option: Berkley Johnson Silver Minnow
- Best Premium Option: Bass Assassin Saltwater Sea Shad
- Best Topwater: Bomber Lures Badonk-A-Donk Topwater
- Most Versatile Action: Sea Strike PE2W6 Popeye Bucktail Jig
- Best Diving Lure: Yo-Zuri 3D Inshore Surface Minnow
- Best Shrimp Mimic: DOA Shrimp
Mirrolure Mirrodine
Best Overall: The most versatile lure with the most control is an excellent choice for any inshore saltwater fish.
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KEY FEATURES
- Can be fished anywhere in the water column
- Variety of colors and patterns
- Can be fished in nearly any situation and worked any way you choose
The Mirrolure Mirrodine is a lure that can really do it all. Coming in a wide variety of lifelike color patterns and a great mimic of a wounded baitfish, the Mirrodine works extremely well in any situation and with a ton of different inshore species. It’s an excellent choice for any fishermen targeting trout and other inshore gamefish.
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Lure Details
The suspending twitch bait comes in patterns modeled off of real-life baitfish, with 3D eyes, a wide-body profile, and internal rattles to get fish’s attention. It’s a suspending bait, which means it sinks slowly, allowing you to fish anywhere in the water column by adjusting the sink time and retrieval speed.
What to Expect
The Mirrodine excels in nearly any situation you put it in. You can easily fish grass flats and surf zones with the lure, and anywhere you fish you can go for a surface or bottom retrieval. You’ll want to give it a twitch or two at a time, giving it time to sink in between. On those pauses is when you should expect a bite.
Berkley Johnson Silver Minnow
Best Budget Option: Always a classic, this spoon is an exceptional trout lure that can stand up to their aggressive strikes and toothy mouths.
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KEY FEATURES
- The weedless design doesn’t grab grass on the flats
- Corrosive-resistant body and finish
- Proven track record across multitude of species
Spoons are a timeless fishing lure that has always found success and come at a relatively low entry price. This one from Berkley Johnson is a great choice for trout since it comes in a weedless design to keep from grabbing up too much grass from the flats trout prefer. It makes a solid addition to any tackle box targeting a wide variety of fish.
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Lure Details
Spoons are simple lures made of metal that flash in the water the same way a baitfish would as it darts past. The weedless design of this one makes it a safe choice to use on the grass flats that trout frequent, and the integral hook ensures a strong connection between it and the lure body.
What to Expect
Spoons do well on a variety of game fish that feed on small baitfish. You can work it a number of ways, but a quick twitch and slow retrieval should work well on trout. If that isn’t working, mix up your speeds until you figure out what you have the most success with. Be wary of going too slowly and letting your spoon sink to the bottom.
Bass Assassin Saltwater Sea Shad
Best Premium Option: A fantastic shallow-water option for mimicking wounded needlefish and lizardfish.
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KEY FEATURES
- Super responsive on braided lines
- Quick, darting action in the water
- Multiple colors and patterns to try out
Soft plastics can be a great option for speckled trout, especially on the shallow grass flats they call home. The Bass Assassin Saltwater Sea Shad gives you a ton of options for color and frantic darting action that trout love. Thanks to trout’s sharp teeth, they can be a more expensive option than hard baits because they’ll get torn up much much faster.
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Lure Details
These are simple, plastic lures shaped like small baitfish. You can use brighter colors to help get more attention and have them stand out, or more dull colors to try to be as realistic as possible. Their shape lends to them having a great darting action in the water, and they move much like a wounded baitfish would with quick twitches and pauses in between when worked properly.
What to Expect
You should be working these either back and forth or in a straight line with quick rod twitches and pauses in between twitches. The pause gives the lure time to sink and better mimics wounded baitfish movement. Expect strikes during your pauses between twitches.
Bomber Lures Badonk-A-Donk Topwater
Best Topwater: An extremely durable rattler that works exceptionally well enticing strikes from all inshore fish species.
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KEY FEATURES
- Heavy-duty parts ensure durability
- Low pitch and high pitch internal rattles
- Perfect walk-the-dog action
The Badonk-A-Donk is a trusted topwater lure for all kinds of inshore game species. Multi-pitch rattles allow it to tempt fish in any water conditions, and a frenzied action entices huge topwater blowups. Overall, it’s one of the best options you can get in a topwater for inshore fishing.
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Lure Details
3D eyes, heavy-duty connections, and internal rattles all make the lure stand out. It can stand up to heavy strikes from toothy fish, and you won’t need to swap up your connections from either strikes or corrosion. The internal has both a high pitch and low pitch rattle, attracting a variety of fish and making the lure stand out even in murky or rough waters.
What to Expect
You’ll usually be working the lure with a walk-the-dog action. With trout, expect strikes during your pauses most often, but also when the lure reaches the middle point of its back and forth motion.
Sea Strike PE2W6 Popeye Bucktail Jig
Most Versatile Action: A lure you can work in any style, at any depth, and for nearly any kind of fish.
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KEY FEATURES
- Long hair tail excellently mimics baitfish body shape
- Easy to rig, even easier to use
- Huge versatility in actions and target species
A good bucktail jig is a common lure for any saltwater fishermen. They make great baitfish mimics, and this stands true for speckled trout. They have a hard time resisting a darting, sinking lure, and this one from Sea Strike PE2W6 Popeye Bucktail Jig stands up to the hard strikes from trout.
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Lure Details
Tied with natural bucktail, this jig features an extra-strong, corrosion-resistant Mustad hook. The body of the jig has large eyes to help keep up a lifelike appearance, and the tail is longer than other bucktail jigs, giving it a larger body profile. Additionally, the 1 ½ ounce weight is perfect for tossing to trout out on the flats and is the ideal size for large trout prey.
What to Expect
Bucktail jigs are really easy to use, in fact, you can find some kind of success with any action at all. The best course of action is allowing it to sink for a one count in between quick rod twitches, expecting bites on the pause. You can also work it back and forth or jig it vertically in deeper water.
Yo-Zuri 3D Inshore Surface Minnow
Best Diving Lure: Using Yo-Zuri’s patented internal foil, the Surface Minnow is the perfect choice in areas where trout are preying on mackerel, sardines, and mullet.
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KEY FEATURES
- A shallow diver (2-foot) works great in shallow water
- Internal foil and rattles stand up to harsh strikes
- Extra-long hooks for easier hookups
Yo-Zuri's Surface Minnow feels right at home on the oyster beds, grass flats, and beach troughs you’ll be hunting trout in. Its diving action works well to pull fish up from the bottom and its exceptional flash attracts fish from farther away than other lures will. Overall, it’s a fantastic choice any time you’re fishing shallow waters for big predatory fish.
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Lure Details
The small lip causes the lure to dive when retrieved, floating back up to the surface on pauses. It’s essentially the opposite action of the previous entry on the list. The internal foil is extra flashy, and can’t be damaged by scratches on the body of the lure. Internal rattles provide even more attraction, and extended hooks and connections allow them to hang farther off the lure and increase hookup chances.
What to Expect
You should still expect strikes on pauses with this lure, however, it is best worked when pulled in a straight line. Use it on grass flats and oyster beds to get it close to the bottom, allowing it to float back up on a pause.
DOA Shrimp
Best Shrimp Mimic: Trout absolutely love shrimp, and this is one of the most realistic shrimp lures you can find.
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KEY FEATURES
- Lifelike appearance and movement
- Vibration legs for attraction
- Smell, taste, and feel like the real thing
DOA is known for its lifelike lures, and the Shrimp doesn’t disappoint. It’s ready to go out of the package and doesn’t take a skilled approach to get the most out of it. Made to look, feel, and taste like the real thing, trout will go bananas for this shrimp lure.
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Lure Details
The lure overall is made to look like a shrimp. It has vibrating legs that both mimic shrimp legs and add extra attraction through water vibration. The body of the shrimp is impregnated with real shrimp to give it a lifelike smell and taste, and the soft plastic of the lure is made to feel like a shrimp in a fish’s mouth.
What to Expect
You can work the lure any number of ways, but a slow retrieve works best. Bounce it across the bottom, allowing it to sit a moment before twitching the rod to raise it up and move it towards you. Expect to get hit at the beginning of your pause when it’s in open water off the bottom.
What To Look For When Buying Speckled Trout Lures
Lifelike Motion:
One of the most important things to look for in a trout lure is its appearance and motion. The more natural the lure looks in the water, the easier it will be to get the trout to bite. Of course, when it comes to appearance you can trick the fish, like with spoons or bucktail jigs. A quick darting motion and flash or body profile are enough most of the time to get a trout to bite. Try to get lures that mimic the movement of a natural prey item like a shrimp or small baitfish.
Durability:
Despite not being heavy-weight fish, trout hit extremely hard and have sharp teeth. You need your lure to have a durable finish and body or it won’t stand up to very many strikes before it will need to be replaced. Internal foils, durable paints, or lures that are easily replaced are your best bet to ensure you can keep fishing successfully.
Flash:
One of the best ways to attract many game fish, but especially trout, is with a very flashy lure. The flash not only entices them to strike, but it can look exactly the same as a baitfish darting through the water or catching a fish’s attention from farther away. Lures without flash will need some sort of smell or need to be a lot closer to a fish to get their attention in the water.
Questions & Answers
How do I find big trout?
Large trout tend to show up in the same spots. If you catch one big one, it’s more likely than not that more are in the area. They usually hang out in deeper channels and holes during cold fronts and come out to feed after they pass. Look for structures that hold a lot of small mullet and other baitfish, river mouths, and potholes in grass flats to find bigger trout more consistently.
Are loud lures or quiet ones better?
Small internal rattles are usually not a bad thing, but for larger trout, they can get scared off. Go for quieter lures if you aren’t finding success and avoid the noisiest of lures like propellers and chugging topwaters. Soft plastics and small rattles usually work best when it comes to trout.