Sunrise is prime time for big trout.

It was early morning and the tide was just beginning to fall from the marshy banks of the Intracoastal Waterway—a perfect time for northeast Florida trout fishing.

A good distance from shore, David Ponce cut the outboard, dropped the electric trolling motor and cast a noisy, frog-colored chugger lure up into water less than 10 inches deep. On the second cast, a fish rushed into the shallow slough to take the lure.

“The fish came right out of the water, tailwalking and shaking its head like a leaping tarpon,” David recalled.

A redfish may have been a more likely candidate in such shallow water, but the aerial display ruled that out right away. This fish was in fact a trout. A really big trout. After a battle that lasted several minutes, Ponce’s friend Freddy Carlson slid a landing net under the tired speck and hoisted it into the boat. The fish was so big that half of it was still hanging out of the net.

Ponce held the trout up to admire it. The head was almost even with his belt buckle, while the tail touched the bottom of his flats boat. Freddy and Kevin Carlson helped measure the fish. It was an incredible 33 inches! Quickly they slid the big speck into the release well and continued casting the shallows.

Seconds later, the lid of the well burst open and the fish flopped out onto the deck. David rushed to return his prize to the well, as it was sure to be a high scoring entry in the live-release tournament he was fishing. This time, Freddy sat on the lid until the big speck settled down. The fish, however, wasn’t through.

The anglers just couldn’t resist another peek, and when David reached in and lifted the fish out to admire one more time, it thrashed violently, broke his grip and splashed overboard to freedom.

“I went weak in the legs; I sat down and felt like crying,” said Ponce, remembering the fateful loss of the fish. Good estimates put the weight at somewhere near 12 pounds.

However, this fish tale doesn’t end here. Still frustrated by losing his giant speck, David began to cast his chugger to the very same slough. Within moments, he watched a second fish home in on the lure. “This trout was so large that it actually had to swim on its side to get my plug,” said Ponce. A similar battle ensued, only this time it didn’t take long for the angler to practice his famous catch-and-release tactics. The fish shook its head so hard it dislodged the plug and sent it flying into the morning air.

“I would’ve bet anyone that the second trout was even larger than the first one,” he said.

Even though he lost his catch of a lifetime, Ponce commissioned a taxidermist to produce a replica mount based on the length of the fish. The giant speck now shows off its massive frame to onlookers who often listen to David’s tales of chugging the shallows.

David Ponce is among a multitude of northeast Florida fishermen who have discovered a developing fishery for “gator” seatrout. Most attribute the increase in sizable fish to the net ban, which in 1995 halted excessive commercial taking of trout and trout forage. The once diminished schools of mullet have returned to shallow mud flats and narrow sloughs that feed them—and so have hungry seatrout.

Amongst northeast Florida trout anglers, however, it seems only a relative handful have the patience to wait for a trophy fish to engulf a topwater plug. Most still fish with live shrimp or a variety of deepwater speck lures, though the odds of catching gators (five pounds and larger) on such baits are often fairly slim. Of course, there are the exceptional livebait fishermen who catch their share of fish long as a man’s arm in these northeast waters. But for dependable shots at truly big trout, topwater fishing shallow water—particularly with a loud, splashy chugger—seems to be the key.

Ponce works a 20-mile stretch of Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) that begins just south of Jacksonville, where it is known as Palm Valley, and runs to St. Augustine’s Salt Run. There, the ICW is a deep channel bordered by shallow mud flats extending 15 to 30 feet out from shore. Also creek mouths, shell beds, sloughs and marsh-lined banks point the way to fishy territory.

“Although this shallow-water action remains good all year, I look for the best action to start in September and run right through the month of December,” said Ponce. “The main key is the water temperature, which should be at least 72 degrees or warmer. I also find that the outgoing tide provides the best action, particularly when the falling tide is running over a shallow-water shell bed. There, giant seatrout will often ambush baits as they pass over the shell bed.”

Proximity to deep water is another thing Ponce looks for. “Many of my favorite flats have deep holes nearby, ranging in depth from 20 to 30 feet,” he said.

Ponce also pointed out that strong weather fronts, heavy rainfall, discolored water, high winds and the full moon are all factors which lead to a poor bite.

“The full moon produces fast-running tides, which make it extremely difficult to work the shallow flats,” he said. “The current causes your boat to drift too fast, and you don’t get time to work a topwater plug properly. You could run against the tide with your electric motor, but I strongly believe that the noise created by the motor spooks seatrout. This is why I prefer to drift slowly with the tide and occasionally employ the electric motor to guide the boat.”