Volume 9, Issue 8

Page 5

Reprinted from July, 2000.

 

Bridge fishing is a broad category. Bridge fishing can be for common baitfish such as sheepshead, croaker, sand Perch, flounder, bluefish, and pompano. Each fish type requires different types of equipment and they are usually fished at different times of the year. The real die-hards fish for the snook, they will also catch big trout, jack crevale etc.

 

The real bridge fisherman are an overlooked big game fisherman, but if you are crossing the area bridges late at night and very early in the morning you may see them. However, you could easily miss them, because they are often under the bridges and on the catwalks alongside the bridges. They truly qualify as the old-salt fisherman; they will do anything, brave any weather and fish all night for big snook. These local waters produce snook in excess of forty pounds, so you had better be ready with the correct equipment and bait at the right exact moment of the strike or you will be cut off in a heart beat.

 

Best time to fish for snook:

•      Night fall to day break

•      When there is a 10 mph breeze, causing a ripple on the water.

•      When the mullet are running under the bridges.

 

Best time of year to fish for snook:

•      You can catch snook all year long. Some months are better then others.

•      The summer months and early fall are the best months for quantity.

•      November and December are the best for truly big snook thirty pounds ++

•      During the mullet run in late August and September it gets real exciting at all the local bridges.

 

Where to fish:

•      An absolute favorite spot year around is the mosquito bridge between the Jensen Beach causeway and the Hutchinson Island.

•      The catwalks alongside the main span of Jensen Beach Bridge.

•      The edge of the bumpers in the main channel under the bridge.

 

How to fish the bridges:

•      The optimum situation is when it is dark and there is an outgoing tide.

•      When there is an outgoing tide i.e. on the mosquito bridge you should be facing north with the outgoing tide coming toward you. The natural bait from the mangroves moves under the bridge where the big fish lay in ambush. If you are using live bait, cast it forward (north) and let it drift back to and under the bridge. ONE IMPORTANT TRICK IS TO HANG A LANTERN OFF THE BRIDGE ABOUT TWO FEET (2’) ABOVE THE WATER, IT WILL BECOME A MAJOR ATTRACTANT FOR PREDATOR FISH WHO WILL AMBUSH SMALL FISH WHEN THEY ARE EXPOSED BY THE LIGHT. THE CIRLE OF LIGHT, WHICH IS THE TARGET ZONE, PROJECTS UNDER THE BRIDGE AS WELL AS OUTWARD.

 

(Continued on page 7)