Combine that with a relatively deep but narrow main waterway and a wealth of side creeks, and anglers do need to stay on their toes.

Here’s how the local experts deal with these factors.

On the upper half of the flood tide -- especially if it occurs early or late in the day -- savvy anglers are tossing topwater plugs or hard-plastic jerkbaits along Spartina grasslines adjacent to a sharp drop. The best grasslines are those that host a lot of baitfish activity. Some of the best areas are not in the ICW itself, but in the lower sections of the major tidal creeks.

As the tide falls and baitfish move back to deeper water, experienced anglers turn their attention to the mouths of intersecting creeks that become funnels for those baitfish.

On the bottom end of the tide, look for oyster edges that have deep-water drops right next to them. Topwater plugs can be effective if the light levels are dim, but hard-plastic jerkbaits or 5-inch soft-plastic grubs on a jighead take more trout at midday.

MOSQUITO LAGOON
If swift tides are not to your liking, head south along the Atlantic Coast to Mosquito Lagoon. There’s still some tidal activity here, but it occurs at a much more sedate pace. Game fish movements are not as abrupt, and a hot hole can stay hot longer. It also means that the trout, at least in the lagoon itself, are more oriented toward feeding during dimmer light.

“This is a good area to hit at dawn with topwater plugs,” offered veteran guide Scott Tripp, “especially if you have a high morning tide. Big trout move up onto shallow flats and head right to the mangrove shoreline. They’ll be right in there with the snook, and you can have a real interesting ‘day’ before 11:00 a.m.”

The maze of mangrove islands and cuts provide plenty of shoreline for big trout to prowl. But savvy anglers often start their searches along those shores that show a relatively close proximity to a deeper cut or channel.

Big trout move shallow, but don’t like to be very far from the safety of deeper water. If they must cross 50 yards of shallow flat to reach a mangrove shoreline, they won’t. They find mangroves within a few yards of water that’s five to eight feet deep.

Anglers who keep that thought in mind can look at a mile of mangroves and quickly zero in on the key feeding areas, which may not comprise a total of 300 yards of shore.

As the tide falls, trout move off the shoreline to seek deeper water. In the many cuts through the mangroves, any hole deeper than five feet can produce.

But Tripp has a better idea.

“The ICW to the north of the lagoon is a great spot for low-tide trout,” he noted. “This area is riddled with small tidal creeks and back bays that the trout move into with the rising tide. But when the tide drops, they come out to the ICW.

“In many spots, you have a shallow flat that comes out to three or four feet, has a drop, and then a secondary short flat that comes out to a sharp drop in six to eight feet of water.

“That second drop is where you find the big trout on the last of the falling tide, especially if that drop is located downcurrent from one of the tidal creek mouths.”