Wednesday Night Flat Bridge 6/11

Started at my usual time around 10PM with hardly anyone on the bridge. Caught the last hour of incoming tide. First spot I jigged a gulp shrimp around the light. Saw a trout for a split second near the water surface. So instead of fishing the bottom, I decided to slowly let the current drift the gulp shrimp. I would drop my bait down and then lift it up off the bottom a few feet. As the current drifted it, I would slowly raise my rod tip so the bait would look like it's going towards the surface. This method worked immediately because I caught a nice 17.5" spotted seatrout on the first cast after seeing the surface trout. Gave me a good fight, I forgot how strong these fish are compared to lazy flounder.
Unfortunately the action just wasn't there tonight after that. The trout quickly disappeared. I jigged gulp shrimp some more at different spots but no hits. Also spent alot of time looking for live finger mullet because I wanted to bottom rig for big flounder, however I only saw about a dozen all night. I managed to castnet just one. I finished the night at the same spot where I started, fishing a live mullet on the bottom. All of a sudden I see a small baby hammerhead shark swimming by. It swims by my line, turns around and dives to eat my mullet. But it only bit the tail off. Dropped the remaining chunk of mullet so it was floating below the surface. A few seconds later the hammerhead comes back to finish what it started and gets hooked this time. Slow night but still came home with a nice trout!

17.50" Spotted Seatrout on Gulp New Penny Shrimp


Baby Hammerhead shark on finger mullet

Flat Bridge Slam! Small Hammerhead Shark!

Hit the flat bridge at night again. Used some frozen ladyfish as cutbait and caught a nice variety. First fish of the night was a small Hammerhead shark that was no bigger than 15" long. Gave him a quick release back in the water so one day this little guy will hopefully grow to be a 12' tarpon eating machine.
Next fish was a small hardhead catfish. Then 15 minutes later I got another good hit and came to be a bluefish. All fish were caught within 45 minutes.

1st Hammerhead! Flat Bridge Thursday Night

Fished the flat bridge Thursday night for a couple hours by myself. The tide was incoming and almost slack tide. I brought some frozen ladyfish for chunking and frozen lightly salted shrimp. The salt definitly helps to keep the shrimp firm so they stay on the hook better. The fish didn't seem to care either.

Casted one rod with a chunk of ladyfish and noticed immediate taps. The taps were like something small had found a chunk that was too big for it's mouth. I waited for something to actually take the bait and bend the rod. It finially looked like something bigger was interested in the bait and possibly already hooked himself, so I grabbed the rod and fish on! I felt the power of a strong fish, this definitly wasn't a catfish. As I'm reeling, it made a couple 2-3 second bursts that took some line out. And after a brief fight, I had caught my first Hammerhead Shark! This one was 28" long too, which makes it the longest shark species I've caught so far. I've caught a few of those Bonnetheads, but it was cool to actually say I caught a hammerhead. All Hammerhead sharks are protected in Florida state waters, effective January 1st, 2012, so possession and harvest is prohibited. With that said it was safely released back in the water, I did take a quick picture though.