The Feisty, Tasty Sand Trout is Well Worth a Cast
They run in schools, but they don’t get nearly as large as their speckled cousins. They’re aggressive feeders, prone to feeding binges that will help an angler of any skill level collect a fair-sized freezer bag of fillets in very short order. Like speckled trout, they have onion-skin-thin mouths, and are pretty adept at throwing jigheads free when too much pressure is applied.
People compare sand trout to speckled trout all the time, but there is really no reason to do so. The silvery little carnivores hold their own just fine; thank you.
My brothers and I grew up fishing the Pelican Island and Galveston Jetty area with my dad, the late Bill Bozka, Sr. of Pearland. Dad knew what it took to keep kids interested in fishing … action, and lots of it.
In turn, the hordes of sandies that occasionally roamed beneath the pilings of the Pelican Island obliged by providing us countless catches.
What Cynoscion arenarius lacks in size, it makes up in quantity. (Just in case taxonomy is your thing, the speckled trout goes by the Latin moniker Cynoscion nebulosus.)
The current state record stands at 6.25 pounds. I have seen, at the largest, sand trout that weighed almost half that much. Again, though, catching these prolific speedsters is not a matter of trophy-seeking, but instead one of sheer, productive fun.
Sand trout fillets do not hold up well in the freezer, even when vacuum-packed. But for a family or neighborly fish fry, I’ll put fresh sand trout up against any fish that swims, especially when fried with a light coat of corn meal in a searing pan of peanut oil.
On occasion… and when I am feeling particularly health-minded … I’ll take the fresh fillets, dredge them in olive oil, apply a moderate sprinkling of the ever-versatile Tony Cachere seasoning and drop them into a hot frying pan, leaving them on the stove just long enough to turn one side white, flip the fillet, and do the same with the other.
That recipe, by the way, works equally well with not only speckled trout fillets, but also the fillets of virtually any edible fish. Using that process, I can have a trout cleaned, with an electric knife, in all of a minute (the sand trout is very easy to fillet, as like the speck, it does not have the large and much stouter bones of redfish, snapper and other like species).
I rinse off the fillets, apply the olive oil, put them in the lightly-oiled pan … again, lightly seasoned (use whatever spice mix you prefer) … and have the fisherman’s version of the MRE (“Meal Ready to Eat”) in all of 10 minutes.
A quicker, better-tasting recipe is going to be a tough assignment to find.
There is no bag or size limit in effect for Texas sand trout, so your conscience as to what you will eat at a single sitting is your only guide as to harvest.
Unbeknownst to some, sand trout are seriously cannibalistic creatures. One fish, filleted and then cut into small chunks that are then threaded onto small, wide-gap hooks, is all it takes to catch at least a half-dozen more. Start out with fresh dead shrimp, but don’t get too much. Again, the first fish … and if needed, another one a bit later on … will provide all the bait you need.
The fish are prone to start running the surf at this time of year, which makes them very accessible to not only pier fishermen but also anglers who cast from beachfront rock groins.
We have, over the years, caught the species in a vast variety of environments. One of the best sand trout excursions my brother Bill and I ever enjoyed occurred near the base of the South Galveston jetty, where we wade-fished the fringes of the Galveston Ship Channel. The action began in the evening, and we kept it up until well after dark. Even releasing the small, 6-inch-class fish, and focusing on specimens at least twice that size, we took home a plastic bag of fillets that provided us the makings of an awesome fish fry the next afternoon. Some of the evening’s bigger fish were Gulf trout, a larger variety of fish that looks virtually identical to the sand trout (read on to see how to distinguish between the two).
Gulf trout and sand trout will occasionally school alongside speckled trout, preying upon the same current-carried shrimp and shad. It’s not uncommon for both species to strike soft plastic lures intended for specks.
Again, Gulf trout grow a bit larger (the state record is 6.91 pounds), and are more silver in appearance than sand trout. Sand trout are also especially abundant around bay and inshore gas production platforms, where the fish feed on shrimp and baitfish that hold tight to the structures’ manmade shell pads. Deep-water channels, especially near bridges like the one at Pelican Island, can be loaded with the fish in the spring and fall. Nearshore Gulf of Mexico oil rigs tend to hold large schools of Gulf trout throughout the year.
Both species sport an orange coloration inside their jaws. The only way to distinguish between the sand and Gulf trout is to count the rays of the anal fin. The sand trout has 11; the Gulf trout has 8 or 9.
On the line or in the frying pan, it’s virtually impossible to tell the difference.
Nowadays, I still take kids fishing for sand trout. But, to be completely honest, the youngsters are not the only ones who enjoy the often-nonstop action.
The same goes for the impromptu fish fries that invariably follow.
Howdy. I am 
