Flat Bridge Friday Afternoon - Bonnethead Slam!

When I got off work around 1:30pm today, I decided to try fishing the flat bridge during sun-down hours/early evening. I got on my computer real quick to check the weather forecast, tide chart, and to find a baitshop closer to the flat bridge in Port Orange. The only other baitshop I knew of was 38 Live Bait in New Smyrna. It didn't take long to find one in Port Orange, and it was surprisingly close to the flat bridge. It's called Donald's Bait & Tackle on Dunlawton Avenue. Their live shrimp come in mixed sizes, about a dozen for $3.50. A little expensive but what can ya do. I think the medium shrimp at 38 Live Bait are only $2.50 a dozen.

So I get there around 5PM and setup my two rods. One rig was a 2-hook pompano rig and another was just a single 3/0 hook. After about 20 minutes I catch my first 22" Bonnethead Shark just underneath the bridge. I got a few pinfish during the next 90 minutes or so. It wasn't until after 7PM when I started reeling in the fish, I mean sharks. In about an hour I caught 3 more bonnethead sharks. All were out as far as I could cast with my 7ft rod and a 1 oz weight. A guy fishing down the bridge from me caught a nice 2-3 ft Hammerhead Shark during this timeframe too. All together I got four bonnetheads on live shrimp today.

22" Bonnethead Shark
22" Bonnethead Shark
21" Bonnethead Shark
20" Bonnethead Shark

Port Orange Flat Bridge - Monday Night

Me and two friends Zack and Kyle headed out to do some saltwater fishing Monday night. We arrived at the baitshop 5 minutes before they closed at 9pm. Hey everyone does it! Anyway we got our 3 dozen shrimp and drove 1/4 mile down the road to the North Causeway. Man this place was packed with people. Several cars in the parking lot as well. So immediately we decided this place was a no go. It was then I decided to take the 15-20 minute drive to Port Orange. I've been hearing good reports coming from a flat bridge and tonight would be my first time fishing there. Parked next to the bridge and not surprised to see most of our shrimp have died by now LOL. Oh well fresh dead shrimp works too. We fished with my two hook pompano surf rigs. I just hooked a whole shrimp on each hook and dropped the rig straight down.

Kyle drew first blood tonight when he caught a small sailfin catfish. Then Kyle caught a nice 1.5 to 2 foot Bonnethead Shark. Very cool! Then Kyle hooked into a beast that took him for a ride. The fight looked intense, I could see Kyle struggling to control the fish. It was darting left and right rapidly and also making 3 leaps out of the water. It was really awesome! It all happened so fast I couldn't tell what it was until he got it underneath us. As we're looking down we definitly could see it's a manta ray of some sort. The description and behavior all leads me to think it's a Devil Ray. We didn't raise this one up on the bridge, instead it shook off the hook and got away safely. After that Zack caught a nice size Lady Fish. And then finially I caught something, but it was a smaller lady fish. That was it for the night, we probably fished for another hour without seeing another fish. Great night for the guys and it was cool to see a variety of fish for once.