After four years, the New River’s artificial reef is cranking out good numbers of seatrout and other gamefish and plenty in trophy sizes.
Located off what’s locally known as Hospital Point (7 miles north of the Sneads Ferry Bridge and 7 miles south of Jacksonville), the reef is a spring hot spot, according to guide Ricky Kellum.
“It should be really cranking by March,” he said.
Constructed mostly of concrete bridge rubble, AR 398 covers 31 acres and is well marked by buoys.
“The nice thing about this reef is that it’s off limits to netters,” Kellum said. “When they first dropped those concrete chunks to the bottom, it was attracting trout, red drum, flounder and other fish by that summer.”
Artificial soft-plastic lures on 1/4-ounce jigheads are favorite lures at the new reef, although in late February and early March, Kellum prefers the slow-sinking Billy Bay Halo Shad and Billy Bay Perfect Sinker shrimp.
River trout measure from 16 to 22 inches, with some larger specks in the mix during March.
The GPS numbers for the center of the New River reef are 34 39.600 N/77 22.451 W.
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