Another reason: a visit by a school of jack crevalle or porpoise, either of which will scatter a school of specks in a heartbeat. The only way of telling is to catch sight of a porpoise in the vicinity or to retrieve a couple of speck-heads in short order. In either instance, leave immediately and try a couple of other spots (you may find another honeyhole that way); then, go back -- after a bit of time, fish that were there and survived the onslaught just might return. If, however, there seems to be no reason for the bite to have stopped, leave and come back next time.

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As I mentioned at the top of this article, I’ve caught a lot of specks in the Gulf. They’ve averaged larger than those I’ve taken inshore, and some of the biggest ones some folks have ever caught have come from out there -- usually on small live mullet worked deep on a fishfinder rig. But the best thing about these fish is that if you find them around a particular bit of structure here, it’s quite likely you will find them there again -- or around one similar to it.