While it may appear that Jim Romeka hooked this trout near the grass, the fish hit over submerged oysters farther off the shoreline.

“The rock breakwalls by the Dames Point Bridge have produced a lot of big trout,” Romeka notes. “There are actually two lines of rock, one right on the shoreline and the other about 15 feet out from that, which may be barely visible during low tide. Trout love to cruise the edges of both sides on a high tide, and the outer rock during low.”

The Fort Caroline shoreline is dock-laden and slopes sharply to 20-plus feet of water, another favored big trout haunt.

Topwater plugs and jerkbaits are still effective lures on these deeper banks, but there are times when a 4- or 5-inch plastic tail on a 1⁄8- or 1⁄4-ounce jighead can be a better bet, especially on the tide’s lower end during midday hours. Combinations of chartreuse/red (sometimes called electric chicken), pearl white, or if the water happens to be a bit dark, root beer with gold flake, are preferred colors.

From Fort George to Dames Point is a nice chunk of water to cover, the favorite area for Romeka during most of the spring season. But, if the action tails off there later in the spring, he simply heads south.

“Sometimes in late spring you can get some good trout movements from the Dames Point Bridge all the way down to the Buckman Bridge in Orange Park,” he says. “This area doesn’t have the strong tides we get up in Jax, and the cover is quite different from up north. You don’t have a lot of grass or oyster, so what you’re looking for are docks and rock breakwalls near deep water. At times that section can be a real hotspot for big trout.”

If variety is indeed the spice of life, you can find plenty of that in the River City. And plenty of big trout as well.\

FS