Flat Bridge Sunday Night 7/27

Wanted to take my boy fishing and I knew live bait would be key to putting fish over the rails. Left our house around 7:30PM and made a stop to pickup my friend Zack too. Fast forward we get to New Smyrna around 8:40PM, and find the baitshop that had mud minnows had closed shop early for some reason. They were suppose to stay open until 9PM. So we ended up going to Thirty Eight Live and they only had live fiddler crabs. It's a good thing I saved about 7 baitfish that I netted the night before! I had a few mud minnows, 2 finger mullet and some pinfish. With limited bait we still caught some fish. Cody caught the first fish which was a butterfly ray. Then I get a 12" flounder on a mud minnow. That was it for the night. Zack got skunked as usual LOL.

Wednesday Night Flat Bridge 7/16

Hit the bridge with my buddy Zack. We first stopped at some boat ramps and netted alot of big mojarras and some pinfish. We had plenty of bait, so we went to the bridge. Tide was still outgoing but nearing slacktide. We fished the northside of the bridge. I first caught a huge butterfly ray, that was cool. Zack was slaying the ladyfish on live bait, he ended the night catching 3 ladyfish and donated them to be sharkbait. I finially caught a flounder but it was only 11.5" so it was released. The bite was slower than it usually is, but we still caught some fish. When I put on a fresh lively baitfish I usually got a hit pretty quick. That was it for the night, came home with 3 ladyfish. Oh yeah, I also hooked into a nice sized bluecrab. It actually stayed on my line as I brought it over the rails and into a bucket. It was a big male. I cooked him as soon as I got home and had bluecrab for the first time. It was awesome! I measured the crabs shell and it was 5.5" from side to side, so with the legs the crab is much bigger.

Tuesday Night Flat Bridge 7/15

Kept about a dozen live mullet for 2 whole days with only 1 death (it was the one that got stuck in the net). I had to use them ASAP though because the water was starting to stink. It was a wet evening in central Florida though, but I had a feeling the storms would die off around 10pm as they have recently. So I drive out there, knowing it's raining and taking a chance on whether it would clear up or not. I get to New Smyrna first around 10:30pm, it's just a sprinkle here but enough to get wet. I quickly refresh the water for my live mullet and get back in the car to decide my next move. Now the radar shows the storm is clearly dying off so I head straight to the flat bridge. I get there and see nobody on the bridge because it had just stopped raining. Perfect timing.
I fish two spots with live mullet. Only one spot produced a steady bite. It's my new honey hole where I'm catching flounder, snapper, trout, ladyfish, butterfly ray. Tonight I would catch 3 flounder all 12" but very fat. Check out the photo of the first flounder. I caught it on a finger mullet and when I got it on the bridge it spitup a whole mojarra as well. I also caught 3 small butterfly rays and a huge ladyfish that is 21" long! This new honey spot is best on an incoming tide with some current. I tried moving down but couldn't get a hit, so I went back to my favorite spot and started catching fish again. My last mullet of the night produced my last flounder, nice way to end the fishing trip. Very good night on the bridge!

Tuesday Night Flat Bridge 7/8

Arrived about an hour after the storms passed, so I was almost sure to have the bridge to myself. Sure enough that was the case around 10:00PM. I had already netted my bait the night before so I was ready to go. I had a small selection of live mullet, mojarra, pinfish and mud minnows. About a dozen baitfish all together.
Current was outgoing and not moving very fast, so I started on the southside of the bridge. Couldn't get a hit though, so I crossed over to the north side. Lost something after it hit my bait on the bottom. Dropped it down where I lost it, and it hit my bait again. It just would slowly move along the bottom. I waited a few seconds before trying to cross it's eyes but again, it came unbuttoned. Couldn't get another hit after that, and now the current was starting to roll faster. Crossed back over to the southside and caught 2 flounder that were 12" each. One flounder was on mud minnow and the other on finger mullet. Also caught a couple butterfly rays. They always fool me into thinking it's a big flounder on my line!

Sunday Night Flat Bridge 7/6

Went to the bridge last night but first I had to net some bait. Went to a couple boatramps in New Smyrna that typically hold baitfish. Got a couple mojarra, about half dozen small mullet, a greenie and a pinfish. Finially around midnight on the flat bridge and immediately caught a 12" flounder on the live greenie. Good start! Continued to fish for about an 1.5 hours, got a small ladyfish on a mojarra, 3 butterfly rays that kept taking the mullet, a FAT 12.5" football on a live pinfish, and then a 13.5" flattie on the last mojarra.
Live bait is now the key to catching numbers of fish. I use two rods, each tied with 20lb fluorocarbon leader and a size 2 Owners K Hook. Usually I drop one down next to the light pole, while I slowly walk the other rod trying to find a bite.

New Smyrna Morning Bite - Bluefish / Butterfly Ray

Me and Kyle planned to fish the morning bite at New Smyrna so we arrived a few hours before first light. Our 1st priority was to get some baitfish so we spotted some schools of finger mullet. Most of the mullet we caught were about 3" long, perfect finger size. Kyle caught a few bigger mullet and I netted 2 live shrimp when the current slowed down. We fished our usual spot at the end of the pier and waited for morning. When morning came, we waited some more. The bites were not coming as we had hoped. No crevalle jacks, no redfish, no drag singing bites. I did get a Bluefish up on the dock and Kyle caught a Butterfly Ray, but that was it. Well, another day another outcome hopefully. Thats the way fishing is, one day your on top of a feeding frenzy and the next day your wondering if there's any fish at all.

A couple Butterfly Rays - Man Jumps Off Bridge

The trip started with Kyle, Zack and myself at the Mullet Lake river bank. It was a stormy night in central Florida though, so after about an hour at the bank we packed up and left because we noticed lightning getting closer. Remember, lightning can hit up to 15 miles away from the storm. It's not something to ignore, especially with four 7 foot lightning rods in the water.

The night was young and I still wanted to fish, we re-grouped in the parking lot and talked about going to New Smyrna where we can fish underneath a bridge. The problem was I didn't have my castnet for bait, but we took our chances anyway. I figured someone would be there with some bait we could either get for free or give them a couple bucks. Luckily the old man Gene was there. This old guy is serious about fishing, he literally has about 8-10 poles in the water, a large cooler, several live bait buckets in the water, at least 2 castnets, and probably some other shit you wouldn't normally carry out to the pier. He carries all his stuff on an extra large rolling cart that looked custom made. Anyways, I'm on good terms with the guy since I've fished with him before. Sometimes he can be grumpy as hell but last night he was nice enough to castnet some bait for us. With some live spots, I caught a Butterfly Ray (pictured below). Later in the night, Kyle caught another Butterfly Ray too.



Last evening, a man apparently jumped from the SR 44 bridge that goes over the South Causeway and landed hard on the ground just missing a small pond in the parking lot. It was probably a 70 foot drop from where he jumped. I didn't see him fall myself, but another witness said it looked like a trashbag and heard a loud thump. The witness said after the man hit the ground, he hit it so hard that his shoes flew up off his feet. As the guy was laying on the ground, they say he was still breathing but his spine was all messed up. It was a very awkward situation for witnesses including myself. I've never been that close to something like that and it just amazes me how people do harm to themselves. A helicopter had to airlift the man to the hospital, if he survived I don't know. I haven't been able to find any local news about the incident yet.

Butterfly Ray @ New Smyrna Beach

Bought a new 5' castnet at Walmart for about $32.00 and headed to NSB. Last night both causeways were very busy. I arrived in NSB around 10:30PM hoping to get some fishing done. The north causeway was lined up with crab traps all the way down the pier so I didn't even bother, and the south causeway had alot of people in my usual fishing spot. But the good thing about the south causeway is there is plenty of space to spread out. I walked down to the first light on the seawall and thats where I was seeing some shrimp. So thats where I started with my castnet and almost immediately I was catching shrimp. I netted about 8-10 medium to large shrimp, then walked back to the main pier to get some mullet and spots. A few runs of mullet and only a few spots netted in the bait bucket. Finially some people were leaving and I was able to get started fishing in my favorite spot, I'd say around 1:30AM. Then shortly after 3:00AM I heard my baitfeeder go off and I ran over to pick up my rod. I felt the pull and set the hook, boom FISH ON! It took a few minutes to reel in because it dove down under some rocks for a bit, but I waited and eventually it came out of the rocks so I could continue reeling. It was heavy. I was reeling against the strong current on top of it, so it felt like a really HUGE fish. Got it up to the dock but it was still too deep to get a look at it just yet. Carefully reeled it up and got a view of what was on the other end, a big Butterfly Ray was hooked in the fin. By the end of the night I still had about 11 mullet to take home for some frozen bait.