Trout Report at the Flat Bridge 10/16

Had another opportunity to night fish the flat bridge so I took a ride to the east coast. Started near Aunt Catfish restaurant as the current was rolling that way, and while jigging a watermelon Swimming Mullet I caught an 11" Sand Trout! I haven't seen one of these guys in a long time.
No more hits so I crossed over the bridge to the "flattie rock" area and hooked a pretty 13" Spotted Seatrout on glow Swimming Mullet. I wanted to try the flounder but I couldn't. The current was just ripping too fast, which makes it very difficult to get to the bottom where the flounder are.

Dunlawton (Port Orange) - Lady Fish & 15" Sand Trout

My friend Kyle and I were seeking out some night fishing at the New Smyrna causeways Wednesday evening. We arrived at the South bridge first and netted some finger mullet. But with too many other lines in the water there, we didn't even bother getting our rods out. At least we had some bait so we loaded up and took a short drive to the North causeway. After scouting the situation there, it was a nightmare waiting to happen with lines crossing and no room to cast or even retrieve your line. So it was then we decided to try a new spot that we haven't seen before, the Port Orange Causeway. It was only a 15 minute drive from our location so we headed to Port Orange.

More commonly known as the Dunlawton Bridge, it spans the Halifax river and the Intracoastal Waterway. We got there around 2am and it was fishing time, yay! I started with pieces of frozen shrimp on a pompano rig and caught a couple Lady Fish. One of them I used as cut bait since I've heard it's suppose to be really oily and bloody. With that in mind I casted out a chunk of lady fish and waited. I got a nice hit on it for a second, but that was it. Next I setup another rod with a live finger mullet, this is actually my new reel that I haven't used much. It's my first conventional reel and it's definitly a learning experience. I can't really cast that far with it yet, but it works really well for fishing off of causeway piers. Using live mullet on a 3/0 owners light mutu hook, I caught another Lady Fish and then I hooked a nice 15" Sand trout. I capped off the night with a tiny little 5" sailfin catfish using a pieces of shrimp.

Total tally for me was 3 lady fish, 1 sand trout and a baby sailfin catfish.

From Freshwater to Saltwater - Crevalle Jack / Sand Trout

Last night Kyle talked about fishing the Mullet Lake river bank again, and I haven't been there in about 6 weeks. I'm always down to fish, so we prepped our rods for freshwater and got our gear in my car to do some night bank fishing. I had the rod holders, my Coleman eletric lantern, headlamp, frozen mullet and cut shad, big hooks, everything we needed to catch some monster cats. But as soon as we started walking through the grasses to even get to the bank, we noticed the terrain was swampy and flooded with all the rainfall lately. It's the rainy season in Florida afterall, so unless there's a generous dry spell I don't foresee the bank being a good idea anytime soon. Alot of big spiders too, now I'm not a wuss when it comes to bugs but I don't do spiders. The water looked like it was ankle deep in some places as well, so we turned around and the bank fishing that night was a bust before it even started. Damn!

Determined to fish somewhere, we convinced each other to just goto New Smyrna. The high tide would be in our favor so the baitfish should be plentiful. At the time we weren't planning to stay all night either but hey, nobody says fishing is predictable. We caught what we need for bait, including nice small mullet and croakers. I figured with all the bait we had, we should use it to our advantage for a morning bite. I felt confident the bluefish and crevalle jacks would bite, especially with live mullet. The only problem was the outgoing tide was extremely strong in the morning. So strong it was dragging 3oz and 4oz pyramid sinkers. Plus fish don't even bite well when the tide is moving so fast. It was a slow morning. I was hoping the current would slow down in time for sunrise but it didn't. I still managed to catch one Crevalle Jack and then later in the morning I caught a trout. I believe this one is a Sand Trout, which is not regulated in Florida. It was over 15" long and weighed 1 lb 6 oz. This is a new species for me to catch :)

Location: South Causeway, New Smyrna Beach
Tackle: Owners Light Mutu 6/0 hook on carolina rig - 3 oz sinker

Species: Sand Trout
Weight: 1 LB 6 OZ
Bait: live croaker or mullet