I spent a lot of time trout fishing during the month of October, as the fall patterns were setting up perfectly for specks along the coast. Recent tropical storms and hurricanes pushed a ton of bait in the marsh with the storm surges, and the speckled trout and redfish weren't far behind. There's definitely no shortage of storm minnows, cocahoes, and shrimp around, which is evident from the amount of birds diving and surface activity going on. My favorite pattern during this time is fishing bays and lakes at the mouth of the larger bayous on a falling tide, where all of the bait and clean water is being pulled out of the marsh and right into the larger bodies of water where specks and reds await! This pattern can be replicated all over the coast of Louisiana, and proves to be a reliable fall pattern year after year. I had several trips where customers limited out within the first 30 minutes, then we played catch and release for the remainder of the day, or switched to redfish in the marsh. Live shrimp caught plenty of these fish, but it wasn't a necessity as plastics caught their fair share as well! Generally as fronts push through, we'll start to catch fish drift-fishing bays around points and oyster reefs, as well as fishing bayous with good depth