How far out will trout go?

[XtremeAngler]

Anyone know how far out from the beach trout will go?

Today while working, I saw the biggest flock of birds I have ever seen working. There was one massive group of a maybe a hundred birds and then a few smaller pods close to the big group of about 20 birds. They worked their way upwind towards me and as they got closer, I could start to make them out. They were busting the water like crazy and there were loads of fish. I initially though mackerel, but when I saw them closer, they looked too fat to fit the silhouette of a mackerel. Also, these fish were cruising around the surface but not flashing past and striking quick like I would expect from a smack. The fish were all around 15-20 inches, best I could tell anyways. I'm 80 foot in the air so it was difficult to get a really good look. I'm about 7 miles off the beach. Could this possibly be the biggest trout feeding frenzy I have ever seen or is there some other fish I'm not aware of? It was an awesome sight to say the least. Dang near killed me not to drop a pole in the water

[boom]

I've caught gulf trout 10 miles out before.

[XtremeAngler]

Pictures kind of suck but you can at least see how many birds, especially in the first pic

[XtremeAngler]

Click the picture and it should take you to a video. Put the video in fullscreen and you can make out the fish swimming around

[GGF]

Hard to say, but they could have been trout. They aren't called Spotted Sea Trout for nothing.

[Swells]

All I know is that down south here, if there's a ton of bait fish we get trout chasing the bait, and big fish chasing the trout. Well we ain't got tons of bait down here by SPI.

This year ain't so good in the surf out to about a half mile, maybe because of the red tide, freezes, and hurricanes - we got brown water run-off instead of trout green because the Rio Grand is kersploding! Very little bait moving except some limited junior-sized mullet. You're lucky to see good bait, trout, and birds swarming like that, probably got some dolphin or shark chasing the herd. That's a sign of very healthy waters. Ours ain't recovered quite as yet. -sammie

[XtremeAngler]

All I know is that down south here, if there's a ton of bait fish we get trout chasing the bait, and big fish chasing the trout. Well we ain't got tons of bait down here by SPI.

This year ain't so good in the surf out to about a half mile, maybe because of the red tide, freezes, and hurricanes - we got brown water run-off instead of trout green because the Rio Grand is kersploding! Very little bait moving except some limited junior-sized mullet. You're lucky to see good bait, trout, and birds swarming like that, probably got some dolphin or shark chasing the herd. That's a sign of very healthy waters. Ours ain't recovered quite as yet. -sammie

Well this is out of Fourchon, LA. Tell that to the media and all those idiots who have had fishing closed for so long.

[kenny]

Could be any kind of fish, maybe Bluefish, Redfish or drum, gaffttop, mullet, or trout. I've seen specks out at the short rigs.

[czechmark]

Bluefish was my first thought. I remeber when I was kid fishing the Galveston Pier. Big feeding frenzy of bluefish came within casting distance of T-Head. People were running down the pier to get in on the action. Too many lines in one concentrated area became a problem pretty quick. People were casting across 10 or 12 line at a time. If you hooked one you lost it because of the tangles. I caught one or two before it was over. It was a site to see. You will see a lot "things" offshore. That is for sure. Good report son.

[SCHU]

My guess would be bluefish.

[FlatoutFishin]

My guess would be bluefish.

I would say 99% of the time!

[Tiny]

I'm thinking bluefish, and as far as the original question, I've caught some pretty good trout at the short rigs, 12 miles out, in the winter.

[plugger]

If a lot of surface attacks , it could be skipjacks.

[XtremeAngler]

yeah I feel like an idiot now. Lets go with bluefish.