Personal Best Snook @ Flat Bridge 9/1

Brought my friend Zack along for some night fishing in New Smyrna/Port Orange Tuesday night. We get in the area about 10pm and it's incoming tide woo hoo. In need of live bait, we headed to some boat ramps and tossed the castnet around for about 45 minutes. When we had enough mullet the first stop was a secret spot I fell in love with last year. Around this time last year we caught juvenile tarpon, snook, reds, and my personal best 25" trout.....this year nothing. Not even a splash in the water from what I saw. Quickly realized we were wasting our time and decided to move spots to the famous flat bridge.

So by now it's midnight already. Noticed my favorite spot was open and got a little excited. We moved quickly so we could get there before someone sniped the lightpole. We don't fish the same lightpole as others, it's just courtesy. After a few minutes I hooked a sweet ladyfish. Then I get a nice hit and it's my personal best 21" snook! By now my friend Zack is trying to figure out what I'm doing differently, but he's used to that LOL. I'm not done yet, I also get a 16" trout that found his way into my bucket and then another trout that's 14.5" which got a release. All within about 45 minutes. Zack still hasn't caught anything but wait, he finially gets a little 10" trout before we call it a night.

Trout and Flattie Bridge Report 10/21

Tried the flat bridge Tuesday night. Used only watermelon gulp swimming mullet, managed to find the fish hanging at one of the lights. Hooked and caught the same rockfish twice, lol. Also think I had a few flounder on briefly but they got off before I could see them. Then instead of fishing the bottom slowly, I tossed the jig by the bridge and started reeling in a little faster. Caught a 16" trout, then two short 13" trouts. I don't know if they got smart but they stopped hitting the lure after that. Fished the bottom again and caught a small flounder shown in the photo below. That was it, everything released to grow.

GATOR TROUT @ Top Secret Bridge 9/1

Had to start at the new ramp for a bait run real quick so we get there around 10:15pm. Zack and I spent about 30-45 minutes throwing the castnets and grabbed some more live mullet for the bait bucket. I was surprised to see any mullet since it was low tide at the ramp. Counted about a dozen live mullet in the bucket so it was go time.
We arrive at the top secret bridge around 11:00pm and see the current is slowly moving outgoing still. We freelined the live mullet, I had some small hits but nothing connected for very long. About a half hour later the tide turned and now it was moving in the right direction. Around midnight I connect on a large fish and it refused to come in. There was an oyster bed that seperated me from the fish which made it a little more difficult. I just let it tire out but now it was going towards a metal tower thats in the water. If he wraps around that, the game is over. I saw where he was going and made the quick decision to hold the spool briefly and try to turn the fish around. It worked this time and now it was coming in the right direction. I walked my way to the leftside bank, hopped the guard rail and then finished the battle on the concrete slab that lays next to the bank. The idea was to slide the fish on the muddy bank so I didn't have to lift him out of the water. First couple of attempts failed, it tried to get away as soon as it saw skinny water coming. Then by the third attempt it was on the bank and I saw it. All I could say was HOLY SHIT! I have never seen a gator trout this big in my life and it's definitly my personal best. It was 25" long, my previous personal best was 23.5" on July 10, 2011 at North Causeway NSB.

Location: Top Secret Bridge, New Smyrna
Tackle: Owners K-Hook size 2

Species: Spotted Seatrout
Size: 25"
Bait: live mullet (freeline)

Friday Night Flat Bridge 7/25

Hit the New Smyrna ramps around 10pm to net some live bait. It was high tide so I figured plenty of bait. Unfortunately that wasn't the case, I only netted some herring, 2 mojarras and a single mullet. About 10 live baits all together.
Fast forward to the bridge, it was slack high tide when I arrived. I tried the SE corner first but couldn't get a hit. This is where I caught my big flattie a few nights ago. Move down two more light poles to another favorite spot on the southside. First cast put on a mojarra and immediately caught a 12" flounder. About 30 minutes pass and I get a small trout on one of the live herring. Ran out of bait and that was it for the night.

Sunday Night Flat Bridge 7/13

Started around 10:30pm in New Smyrna after renewing my fishing license at Walmart. The plan was to find nice 3" finger mullet along shorelines. Hard to find sometimes but it's worth it. Netted about 10 and took them for a ride to the flat bridge. Parked at the bridge around 11:30 and found the tide still incoming. Fished two spots with no luck. May have lost a flounder on the bottom. Next spot was the hot spot. Slowly dragging a mullet along the bottom I got a 15.5" flounder, 11.5" mangrove snapper, and a 12" seatrout. Also lost a ladyfish as I tried to lift it over the rails. Gotta love the old bridge at night :)

Grand Slam Flat Bridge! Early Morn 4th of July

Had a bunch of live bait leftover from previous nights so I went back to the bridge Thursday night to finish off the livewell. Armed with a dozen small pinfish and a few small mud minnows, I arrived around 10PM. Since the tide was still outgoing, I first worked the southside of the bridge with gulp swimming mullet but without a hit. I then crossed over and tried the northside without a hit. It's almost 11PM now the tide change is running late. Seeing how the bridge isn't producing, I decided to leave for the new ramp to shake off the skunk. Pulled into the new ramp parking lot and started working the honey hole. After the third cast I heard the sound of a manatee surfacing for air. Party pooper! So much for that, I left that spot since it was dark and I didn't want to snag a manatee. I had my castnet with me so I walked down to the actual ramp to see if I could find any mullet or mud minnows. Threw my net and got some mud minnows right on the ramp. I was getting ready to leave to try another boat ramp when I looked over and saw the candy shop was open, it was 30-40 small 2.5" to 3" finger mullets swimming in a few inches of water. Only problem is they were down by the rocks and trees. I was willing to risk it at this point, so I climbed down and creeped up on them so my shadow wouldn't scare them. One quick toss and I got about 15-20 finger mullet in the net. Woo! Change of plans, going back to the flat bridge....
So now I'm back at the bridge and it's past midnight, happy 4th of July! The tide is now incoming and there's one spot open on the northside. Hooked a mullet threw the eyes and dropped it to the bottom, as soon as it hit bottom I get a hit and it's a 14.5" trout! I was able to get two rods baited with live mullet on the bottom, one on each side of the light pole. Got another hit from a strong fighter and my personal best 12" mangrove snapper! Then I get another 9" mangrove. By now I noticed one rod hasn't moved in about 15 minutes so I go to check the bait, when I pull up I noticed something heavy and it's a fat 13.5" flounder on the hook! I catch alot of flounder that way actually, sometimes they just don't move after taking the bait. I continue fishing and catch another 10.5" mangrove, another 13" flounder, then a 11.5" mangrove, and then another 11" flounder. It's now 2am and I only have a few mullet leftover, they were just chewing them left and right. I ended the night catching a 13.5" trout and a small ladyfish.
EPIC night on the bridge. Total tally last night was 10 fish of 4 different species. All trout were released, only kept the 2 bigger flounder and 3 of the keeper mangroves.
2 trout
3 flounder
4 mangrove snappers
1 ladyfish

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

Monday Night Flattie Report 4/21

Conditions were nice for a night fishing trip. Surf was too rough to fish so the flat bridge it is. Had the entire bridge to myself again for most of the night. Started out at my usual flounder hole using white Gulp swimming mullet. Pulled a 13" flounder for the bucket and then about 25 minutes later I got another flounder but it was short. Tried on a watermelon Gulp swimming mullet and hooked a small seatrout that got a release. The ladyfish were biting but only if I kept the bait moving. I hooked a few lady's but only docked one. Action died off for awhile, it took about another hour before I finially got a 12" flounder on gulp shrimp. By now it was past midnight and I was getting tired. Plus I was being surrounded by some late arrival fishermen, a group on each end of the bridge and I'm sandwiched in the middle. Plus my favorite light pole was occupied so I just headed back home with the two flatties. Good night on the bridge!

13" Flounder on white Gulp swimming mullet


small Flounder on white Gulp swimming mullet


small Seatrout on watermelon Gulp swimming mullet


12" Flounder on new penny Gulp shrimp

Freelining Trout @ Flat Bridge 10/19

Arrived at the flat bridge about 11:30 pm last night. It was high tide and just about to turn to outgoing tide. I started at "flattie rock" spot #1 and didn't see anything going on. Needlefish were hanging around and I only saw a few mullet. I jigged some gulp swimming mullet on the bottom slowly but the tails kept getting bit off. Didn't feel like flounder from the way they were striking the bait. I tried gulp shrimp new penny but nothing. So as I'm jigging around the light, this guy is walking down towards me carrying his castnet. Now first of all, the bridge is a rather long bridge. Plenty of space and plenty of lights to find bait. It just so happens there wasn't that much bait on the northside of the bridge. Anyway, this guy continues to walk down towards me, and I see he's looking in the water trying to find something to throw on. I'm thinking to myself, this guy better not come down. Sure enough he does eventually walk down to where I'm fishing and looks for bait. Fortunately for me, there wasn't any bait in the water. But I bet if there were baitfish around, he wouldn't think twice about throwing that net right next to where I'm fishing. Some people just don't have any sense.
Eventually he walks away without throwing the castnet, and I'm definitly feeling alot better now that he's gone. I continue jigging and then a car pulls up next to me and this black guy gets out. I can tell he's unloading the fishing gear because he's grabbing poles and buckets. I'm thinking to myself....REALLY?!?. This asshole decided he was going to fish right on top of me...and it wasn't just him either. The car drove away to park, and several other black guys came walking up...I had about 4 guys fishing right on top of me now! I'm looking around and I see SEVERAL open light posts and fishing spots....the whole entire southside of the bridge was open in fact. I just couldn't believe it...this is why I don't fish on weekend nights. It's when the assholes come out. Most fishermen are cool, but it's people like these guys who don't know any better. Just plain ignorant. Normally I would stand my ground but again, I'm by myself here and there's 4 other guys.
So I play the better man and just move. I crossed the bridge, and low and behold the gold mine of baitfish was there. The mullet were so thick all along the southside of the bridge, I couldn't believe it! However I picked the wrong night to forget my bubbler for the bait bucket! DOH! Luckily I had the trolling bucket which drops right in the water. One cast of the net and I had at least 20 mullet...no lie. I fished a little bit near Aunt Catfish but no hits. I saw down at the next light something was busting the bait so I moved down one light. Thats where I freelined another mullet and caught 2 trout! First one was just short at 14.5" and second was a bigger 16"! I could've kept the last one but I gave them both a release. Besides I just ate trout earlier in the day so I was good. I then moved 2 more lights down to the far eastside of the bridge. Again, mullet like crazy. I ended up catching only 1 more trout down there and it was a short 13". Surprised to see no ladyfish hookups tonight but I'm sure they were out there. There was just too much bait in the water if that is such a thing. :)
Oh, so at the end of the trip I was walking back to my car and briefly talked to the assholes that took my spot earlier in the night. I saw they had a big fat slot red in the cooler. Looked like a nice fish. I should've told them I like to be kissed when I'm F******! Yeah, I'm still mad about that.

14.5" Seatrout


16" Seatrout


13" Seatrout

Trout and Ladyfish Report @ Flat Bridge 10/16

Last night I took my friend Zack fishing on the flat bridge. Our gameplan was to castnet live mullet and freeline them near the bridge. We stayed on the south side of the bridge and were able to find alot of bait in the water. I landed 3 trout during the night, one was short at 13" but the other two were keepers over 15". I also landed 3 ladyfish for the cooler.
My friend Zack was able to get in on the action too, pulling in two ladyfish...one of which was the biggest one of the night! All together I brought home 5 ladyfish for the freezer and 2 nice trout.

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.

Flat Bridge Ladyfish and Trout 9/29

Took my buddy Zack with me to the flat bridge for some freelining last night. I told him about my last trip where I caught several trout and ladyfish using just a live mullet on a small hook. At arrival I noticed the current was outgoing with little bait around. It took awhile but we finially located a couple mullet to get started. We fished the side near Aunt Catfish restaurant the whole night. Zack didn't have too much luck, he hooked into two ladyfish the entire time but couldn't land them. I had a better turnaround tonight, landing 3 ladyfish and a 15" spotted seatrout. All were caught on live finger mullet.

Banner Night at Flat Bridge 9/24

During the almost hour drive to the bridge I prayed to the fishing gods that nobody would be in my favorite spot tonight. When I arrived just after 10:00PM, the rain had just stopped and to my surprise I had the bridge to myself! As soon as I noticed nobody was there I got super excited, this doesn't happen very often. My favorite hole was open and this is where I would hopefully catch some fish tonight. For this trip I brought my castnet because I wanted to free line some finger mullet. I brought my jigging stuff with me also incase the free line action was slow. Gathered what I needed and quickly walked to the other end of the bridge, where I was going to fish. First step was to drop the bucket to get some water for the live well. Then in one cast of the net I had several nice finger mullet. The bait is really thick now that the fall mullet run is in full force. I probably only threw my net 3 times the whole night, and came out with close to 40-50 finger mullet.

Immediately started free lining with a swivel and leader. I wanted to setup my two baitfeeder rods that were setup with a swivel, leader line, and small hook. This didn't work out very well with live mullet, I was concerned the lines would cross and tangle. The extra weight of the swivel seemed to tire out the mullet also. I switched over to my jigging rod and tied a small hook directly to the mainline, no leader or swivel this time. I worked around the lights where I could see some trout hanging around under the schools of mullet. Tried to keep the mullet in front of their faces and also single them out away from the big schools. I caught a couple nice 15" trout almost back to back. I hooked and lost several other fish. Alot of ladyfish striking on the surface. At one point they were feeding so aggressively that as soon as my live mullet hit the water, I could see 3-5 fish swarming to strike. The trout decided to eat again and I caught two more, biggest was 16" long. Finially at the end of the night I landed 2 large ladyfish that took me for a ride. I wanted to stay longer but at this point it was 2:30AM and I still had to work in the morning. LOL

All together I caught 4 spotted seatrout between 15-16" and 2 large ladyfish! All caught on live finger mullet.

Flat Bridge / Sleepy Hollow / NSB Report

Been fishing with artificials lately trying to master the art of jigging. The past few Saturdays I've had off work as well, so I've been taking my son Cody out early in the morning and fishing at first light. My favorite soft plastics are the DOA paddletails, gulp swimming mullet and gulp shrimp. We normally start at the flat bridge and then work our way to sleepy hollow, and then finially New Smyrna area. I really haven't caught much to talk about besides some small trout and a few blues. I did catch my first inshore Barracuda near the culvert side of sleepy hollow. It was a small one but still a first species for me.



The trout fishing has been hot as of late even if they are all undersized. I can usually find them chasing bait at night near bridge and pier lights. They seem to strike just about anything you put in front of them too. Small blues are in the mix as well.

However the flounder bite has slowed tremendously in the river. My friend Kyle caught a couple in New Smyrna, but reports from the famous "flattie" bridge in Port Orange have little to show. Next fishing trip I'm going to try a little different approach and go with a tandem rig like I do with the St Johns shad run. I'm also going to jig a live finger mullet pinned to the bottom. I've been reading up on successful flounder fishing and here's a few notes that came out of my research..

Use live bait, finger mullet in the 4-5 inch range. Mud minnows also work.
Don't use such a long leader between the swivel and hook. 12 inches will help keep the bait down and not allow it to get too high in the water column.
Don't just cast into one area as flounder are ambush predaters. fan cast and slowly bring the line in. pick it up a little and let it drop this way your covering ground.
Flounder like to be in the sand, but like to have some structure next to them.
Use smaller hooks- 1/0, 2/0 maybe even a 3/0. Kahle hooks are preferred.

Flat Bridge Monday - Day & Night Report

With Monday off work, I took advantage of the nice weather and headed to the flattie bridge. On the way I realized that I forgot my jigheads at home, so I made a quick pitstop at Gander Mountain in Lake Mary. I grabbed some 1/8th red jigheads and browsed the DOA shad tails. Grabbed a pack of keylime and nite glow. Also grabbed a pack of DOA nite glow 3" shrimp. The nite glow color has been on my wishlist for a few days, I've been reading that it's deadly for snook and trout around dock lights at night. Also there have been good reports of snook being caught in the past week and large numbers of trout in the area.

So I finially arrived late morning after 10am and started tossing the DOA shad tail keylime. No hits. Put on a gulp new penny shrimp and again no hits. Crossed traffic to the other side of the bridge and first cast caught a 13" trout on new penny gulp shrimp. Few nibbles for the rest of the morning but no fish. Headed back home to rest and pickup my son from school.

Fast forward to evening, I head out again to try my luck on the nite glow lures I bought earlier today. I started in my usual spot but no hits. Crossed over to the trout hot spot and immediately noticed large schools of mullet close to the lights. Tossed a DOA nite glow 3" shrimp and caught a 13" trout. I wasn't getting very many hits on the shrimp, so I switched to a DOA nite glow shad tail and caught two more 13" trout back to back. Next cast I caught a spot croaker.









Action slowed on the paddletail so I switched to my topwater Badonk-A-Donk. To my rightside something was busting in the lights and I thought it would be larger trout. Nope, after aiming a few casts I hook into a huge ladyfish. One of the bigger ones I've seen. It was almost 2 ft long, 19" to the fork of tail. It was really fast in the water and it even went under the bridge briefly. I had to turn it around and wear it down a little. Not sure how I initially hooked it because when I pulled it up I realized that one of the treble hooks was just snagged near it's dorsal fin. Regardless it still counts! The ladyfish was chunked up for cutbait and with that I caught 2 small gafftopsail catfish.







Finished the evening with DOA nite glow shad tail again. I caught another ladyfish that was released. Then I hook into another 13" trout. Last fish of the night was a bluefish that was about 12-13" to the fork. All fish were released except for the large ladyfish that was used for cutbait. All together I got 4 undersized seatrout, 2 ladyfish, 1 bluefish, 1 spot croaker and 2 gafftopsail catfish. Nice variety mixed in there which makes for a very good night on the water. Plus now I'm a believer in DOA nite glow!

Windy Halloween at Flat Bridge

It was pretty chilly at the bridge late morning when I arrived around 10:30am. Temps were in the upper 50's and gradually increasing to the 60's, but the wind chill made it feel colder. I focused on just using artificials today, starting with the DOA CAL Shad Tail and caught a small Seatrout about 12" long.



Then I switched to a new penny Gulp shrimp, and caught another small Seatrout about the same size.



I only stayed for an hour and 15 minutes, the wind was getting stronger and too much to handle. The two seatrouts I caught were released.

Flat Bridge Tuesday Evening

Got the urge to fish the flat bridge yesterday evening. Bought 4 dozen shrimp at 38 Live Bait, but I'll be honest, I didn't get 4 dozen shrimp in my bucket. Looked like I was short at least a dozen or more. I even asked the girl working there, who I've never seen there before, but she insisted it was 4 dozen. I didn't want to sit there and challenge her on it, I'd rather go fishing. So I left there knowing I was screwed on that deal. Plus I know another bait shop next door to the flat bridge if I needed anything else. The only reason I went to 38 Live is because it's cheaper.

Nobody at the flat bridge when I got there. I started fishing about 6:00PM and first cast caught a couple fish. Immediately I had a sea robin and a catfish.





Not long after that I hooked into a small Crevalle Jack but it popped off as I tried to lift it up the bridge. Then I got a small Spotted Seatrout but it was too short to keep. Seatrout have to be at least 15" long and this one was less than 12".



Things died off for awhile, well the catching did anyway. And as expected I was running out of bait because 38 Live Bait shorted me. It was still before 8:00PM when I packed up my things and drove to Donald's Bait across the street before they closed. I got 3 more dozen shrimp and this time, I got my moneys worth if not more. Returned to the same fishing spot and finially caught two Lady Fish that went into the cooler for cutbait. Witnessed a couple good hits on my rod towards the end of my visit when it was getting dark. My baitfeeder was singing a steady song on one hit but as I grasped the reel the fish was gone. Another good hit was a stop and run, stop and run, stop and run sound. Again as soon as I picked up the rod it was gone. Both sounded pretty strong whatever they were. I ended up leaving near 10:00PM.