How To Rig Live Shrimp For Speckled Trout

When you rig live shrimp for speckled trout you are using an age-old method that has served inshore anglers for decades. But what's the best way to do this? How do you keep the shrimp alive longer? What's the best way to get live shrimp in front of hungry speckled trout so you catch them?

These answers and more are what you'll discover in this guide, but if you have any questions or something to add, then please don't hesitate to use the comments section below. For now, let's get started with the best way to hook live shrimp.

The Best Way To Rig Live Shrimp Onto Hooks

There are two ways you should consider doing this. The first method is to hook the shrimp through the head. When you do, you want to take special care that you do not run the hook through the organs in the head, but just under the horn of the shrimp, in one side and out the other. This way the shrimp lasts longer on the hook.

When you rig live shrimp you want it to stay alive for as long as possible, because if its legs are fluttering and the shrimp is swimming upright in the water, it will look more natural and convincing to even the most scrutinizing fish.

That and shrimp can be expensive, upward of fifty cents apiece. If you buy 100 of them on each trip, that's anywhere from $35 to $50 and that adds up over a single fishing season, not to mention the entire year. So rig live shrimp like what you see below.

This method to rig live shrimp is best when fishing with something like a Four Horseman popping cork or wherever the current is not moving fast. However, this is not always the case. You could end up fishing some place where the tide is moving quickly. If so, a shrimp hooked through the head will spin in the water. This look unnatural and tends to tangle fishing tackle.

What you want to do in this scenario is rig live shrimp through the tail. You can run the hook from side to side, like what you see in the picture below, or from bottom to top. This way the shrimp won't spin and will present better to fish.

The Best Tackle To Rig Live Shrimp For Speckled Trout

My favorite hook to rig live shrimp is a 1/0 kahle hook. It's the perfect overall size hook to catch speckled trout and redfish with. Now, if you are not familiar with hook sizing, and how to identify the different parts of a hook, what makes them all unique (as there are many designs that all serve a purpose) then you should check out my hook sizing guide.

After that, you will want to be able to fish live shrimp at two places in the water column: the top and bottom.

The best way to fish the top of the water column is with a popping cork. There are many ways to tie one, so please use this guide to cut through the clutter and tie it right the first time.

After that you will want to consider using a Carolina rig to fish the bottom, and for that I recommend reviewing this guide.

Last, but not least, a great way to rig live shrimp is by combining both of the aforementioned rigs onto one rod is by tying an Inshore Rig. That is the rig that I used for years when guiding clients in the marsh for speckled trout and redfish. It worked for them and it will work for you, too!

How To Keep Shrimp Alive

You really want your shrimp to stay alive and kicking. If they die in the livewell, then you cannot properly rig live shrimp, can you? If the shrimp is fluttering and remaining upright in the water then it will pass the sniff test from wary speckled trout, so you really want to make the effort to keep them lively.

This does not have to be difficult to accomplish, and that's why I created this guide to keeping shrimp alive.

The shocking truth about how you rig live shrimp...

...is that live shrimp are not always the best bait to use. I could really go into detail about that here, but already did with these 11 reasons why live bait is not the best.

It's really best to learn how to use "artificial" lures. Most of the time, all that's needed is to secure the lure the same way you rig live shrimp, like what you see below.

This is what matters the most on your next fishing trip:

Any method used to rig live shrimp is not a guarantee to catching a limit of speckled trout. If it were that easy then this website would not exist. Fishing is far more challenging and, after years of experience, I can tell you that the #1 thing you can do to ensure your success is to find biting fish in the first place.

If you can manage this, then it really won't matter what lure you have tied on, or any way you choose to rig live shrimp. The next most important thing is to be able to safely navigate to those fishing spots and back to the dock. You really don't want to venture into a new area, no matter how productive it is, and risk getting stuck, ruining your boat, or worse.

This and more is what I teach inside my membership, LAFB Elite. In fact, you won't find much about how to rig live shrimp there. Instead, you'll discover my process to finding and catching fish from scratch, as well as how to identify and avoid hazards to navigation.

The majority of this is taught inside my flagship course, Inshore Fishing 101. But you will also enjoy detailed fishing reports and the option to get help planning your next fishing trip inside our Community. You could even discover other fancy ways members prefer to rig live shrimp!