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.

Flat Bridge Snook & Flounder 9/3

Left my house around 10:00PM for a quick trip by myself to New Smyrna. I brought two fishing poles, one castnet and my tackle. Thats how I travel light. Usually I have 3 poles, two castnets, and a couple extra buckets for live bait, along with 2-3 air pumps. So I started at Swoope ramp to find bait and had the whole place to myself. It was low tide but I was delighted to find finger mullet on the ramp. After a few throws I had about 8 mullet. I planned to visit the Top Secret Bridge tonight but after scouting the spot I saw two guys were already fishing it. Plan B, fish the flat bridge. I get to the flat bridge around 12:30am, man already almost time to go home. I wasn't planning on fishing very long but once I setup on my spot I noticed something hitting bait in the water. I freelined a live mullet and caught a nice 16.5" Snook! Caught another Snook that was 16" long. Both were released. Then I hook into a beast that was definitly a much bigger snook but it was able to shake off the hook after giving me a few hard runs. I set a rod down on the bottom and finially caught a 12" flounder on live mullet! After an hour I was out of bait and unfortuately it was time to head home. Man I wish I didn't have to work! Not a bad night with 2 snook and a keeper flounder!

NEW SPOT - Top Secret Bridge - Inshore SLAM! 8/12

So I was fishing the Swoope ramp all by myself when my friend BJ stopped by to see if any mullet were around. He came over and we chatted, I wasn't catching anything I told him. So he talks about a hot spot that he's willing to show me. He said when the tide is right and with the right bait (finger mullet), you can catch snook and tarpon like no where else. We netted some finger mullet at the ramp and I followed him to the new spot. After a U-turn, right, left and right again we were there. :)
He showed me around there and gave me some advice on how he catches fish. On his first cast pretty much he caught a nice snook! I finially get in on the action and catch a small snook. It's actually only my second snook every caught lol. I didn't measure it but I'd say it was around 14-15" long. Gave it a release.



After that I snag a catfish on its side, so I operated some outpatient surgery and gave it a release. Things slowed down and it was about 2am at this point. I had to leave soon. Finially I hook into a redfish that was also released since it was only about 14-15".



Called it a great night after that. I'll definitly revisit this spot again and I thanked BJ for showing me. He asked me not to tell alot of people about it though, so per our confidentiality agreement, I will name this spot "Top Secret Bridge" on this website. :)

My First Snook! NSB South Causeway

Another night trip to the intercoastal waterway, this time we stopped at the South Causeway in NSB. For the most part we were jigging artificials. I tried the shallow area near the parking lot, and felt a bite but it let go. Kept trying the Gulp new penny shrimp and finially hooked the fish. It turned out to be a small snook, which in fact, is my very first snook ever caught! It was only about 12" long so a quick release was important. Here are photos of the baby snook with a mouthful of gulp shrimp LOL