Speckled trout · Orange Beach
Orange Beach trout start in Cotton Bayou and the back bays, working grass edges on the early tide.
Orange Beach trout start in Cotton Bayou and the back bays, working grass edges on the early tide. Summer pushes them to dock lights and deeper channel edges; fall regroups them over the grass with the first north winds.
Trout are the timing fish: first two hours of light, first hour of moving tide. Spring puts the big females shallow at dawn, summer splits the day into a dawn bite and a night bite around lights, and fall regroups fish over deeper grass and shell.
Late April through June for the biggest fish in shallow water, October–November for numbers, and the first two hours of daylight almost any warm month. Check the live Orange Beach bite score before you commit a morning.
Florida's western Panhandle closes trout harvest during February (catch-and-release still allowed); Alabama stays open year-round. Verify current rules before keeping fish.
Conditions decide more than tackle. The live dashboard scores each Orange Beach morning from NOAA tide swing, wind, and sky, with solunar windows and marine alerts, and J&M Tackle and the Caribe Marina dock store are the local bait stops.
Seasons and limits change. Verify with Florida FWC or Outdoor Alabama before keeping fish.