Redfish Magic @ Flat Bridge 10/6 Night Report

The original plan last night was to take Zack shark fishing at Bethune Beach. So we proceeded with the plan and headed to the east coast. I read Cocoa Beach was having seaweed problems the past few days so I was a bit apprehensive. Seaweed and fishing just don't mix
So an hour drive later we arrived at Bethune and scouted the area. I shined a light along the beach and immediately noticed the damn seaweed all along the beach. I advised Zack that this beach trip wasn't going to happen, but luckily I prepared for this. I had brought my jigging poles and artificials for the flat bridge. Stepped back into the car and we drove about 15 minutes north to the flat bridge. At arrival here I noticed alot of people on the bridge but the "flattie rock" light post was open. This is the spot where I've had the most success recently with flounder, trout, and ladyfish. Things are looking better now! So I rushed to park and unload the few things we needed, and we immediately claimed the open light post at flattie rock. I fished with gulp swimming mullet and gulp shrimp tonight. The shrimp didn't get any hits, however, different story on the swimming mullet. I started with watermelon color and caught a nice 15" redfish with beautiful markings. It put up a really good fight, thought I had something bigger to be honest. Then about 30 minutes later I was using pearl white swimming mullet and landed a 12" redfish. Another 10-15 minutes pass and I get hooked with another 15" redfish on pearl white again. Wow! I've never caught this many redfish in one outing. Called it a night after the last one because Zack had to work. Definitly a good night on the water!

15" Redfish on Gulp Swimming Mullet watermelon


12" Redfish on Gulp Swimming Mullet pearl white


15" Redfish on Gulp Swimming Mullet pearl white

Flounder and Ladyfish @ Flat Bridge 10/5

Drove out to Port Orange again to see what I could find. I fished a majority of the north side of the bridge...working my way towards the dirt parking lot. With my famous river killer combo I hooked and landed a fat 12" flounder that went into the bucket. No other hits on that combo so I switched to rootbeer gulp shrimp and got a short flounder. It was released to grow, sorry no pics of that one. Couldn't get another hit so started to work my way back to the car.

Towards the end of the trip I had worked my way almost back to the parking lot, and decided to play with the watermelon swimming mullet. Jigging it a little faster than I would for flounder, I kept hooking into small ladyfish. I was able to fight them but as soon as I was ready to lift them up, they would pop off the hook. I tried white...chartreuse...they were hitting everything and ripping the tails off as well. Eventually I got tired and called it a night. Of the dozen ladyfish I hooked up, I landed only one. It was very small and skinny, but still good enough for bait so I kept it for the freezer.

12" Flounder on River Killer combo

Small Flounder at Flat Bridge 10/3

Night trip to the bridge was almost a bust until I caught this small flounder to prevent the skunk. It was released to grow.

Flattie Bridge GRAND SLAM! 10/2

Arrived at the flat bridge about 11pm and to my surprise only one other fisherman on the bridge. Noticed the tide was already moving out but the current wasn't too strong yet, so it was a good time to try for the flounder. Ladyfish continued their ambush in the water as I watched from the bridge. I started with a gulp shrimp new penny on a gold 1/2oz jighead, and within a few casts I had a 13" flounder in the bucket. Continued to work my way but couldn't get anymore hits on the gulp shrimp.
Then I switched to the watermelon gulp swimming mullet and it was game on again. I caught another flounder but it was short, so I gave it a safe release back in the water. About 15 minutes later I get a 12" flounder. Another one for the bucket! Another 10 minutes pass and I get a rat redfish. Took a photo and sent him back home in the water.
Then I finially landed a ladyfish to complete my grand slam! haha my grand slams are a little different from others. Started working my way back to the parking lot, still using the watermelon gulp mullet, I get another flounder but it's only 10.5".
Most fish were caught on a gold 1/2 oz mission fishin jig with watermelon gulp swimming mullet, except for the first flounder which was on a new penny gulp shrimp. All together I landed 4 flounder, a redfish and a ladyfish. Great night on the bridge!

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.

Small Flounder @ Flattie Bridge 9/23

Fished the flattie bridge last night and worked my way on the north side of the bridge. I tried a new bait tonight, the watermelon color Gulp Swimming Mullet. I couldn't get a hit for awhile then once I got to the third light pole, I started catching little smallies. I caught 3 flounder but none were legal to keep. First one was 10.5" caught on watermelon, second was 11" on watermelon again, then I got a 10" flattie using chartreuse swimming mullet. I stopped fishing for flounder and talked to another fishermen who was freelining live mullet and having some success. We shared some of his mullet with me and we were just hanging out having a blast hooking into trout and ladyfish. I didn't land any, but I felt a good fight several times. Thats about it, here's some photos of the flounders that were released to grow.

12" Flounder @ Flattie Bridge 9/22

It was suppose to rain last night but as the day went on the chances of rain diminished, so I hitup the bridge to find mr flattie again. Tide was slacking and bait was really thick in the water. Off the bat I worked the north side with my river killer rig. As always I juice up the jig with Pro-Cure Shrimp Gel for added scent. After awhile of feeling the bottom, I finially get a hit so I wait a few seconds. Count to 5 and pull up, it's a flounder! Now the tricky part is getting them over the rails, so I line it up getting ready to hold down the spool but the flounder comes unbuttoned and swims away. It said "Not today!" LOL. It looked like a keeper.
I continued my way down the north side and I'm getting pretty good bites here and there. The snappers were out biting the tails off my gulp swimming mullets so I couldn't really use that bait. Instead I worked the river killer the rest of the way. I lost a few more fish that I didn't see, pretty sure at least one was a flounder by the way it was moving. Then I finially got another hit and pulled up a 12" flounder in the bucket.
I proceeded to work my way back to the car and didn't get much action. By now the current is ripping and I haven't got a bite in several casts, called it a night and went home with the 1 flounder.

12" Flounder @ Flattie Bridge 9/20

Got to the bridge and noticed a strong incoming tide that should be slacking up within an hour...so I started on the north side as usual. Didn't get any hits on the far right side, but there were alot of fishermen, so I had to work around them. Found an opening between two fishermen and started jigging the river killer rig. Got a few tabs and pulls, thinking it was a snapper. Something chewed the tail off my white grub tail, but I dropped it back in the water anyway. Good decision because mr flattie came to eat. I hooked into a 12" flounder that went into the bucket. Nice way to show the others how it's done! :)

Slowly got all the way down to the "flattie rock" area and smelled something terrible. It was a dead cat laying on the bridge! The nasty smell ran me out of my spot, I couldn't take the constant odor of roadkill anymore.

So I worked my way back to the car with a white Gulp! swimming mullet. About halfway across the bridge I hooked into a big flounder, this one actually tried hard to get away. I had it lined up and ready to swing over the rails but it came off the hook as soon as I tried to lift out of the water. It didn't even break water surface, just came off the hook. Doh!
Continued to work my way back to the car without anymore action. That was it for the night!

Flounder Report at Flattie Bridge 9/18

Took my friend Zack with me to the flattie bridge for another evening of flounder jigging. I've had luck on the north side so thats where we started. Overall the bite was pretty slow compared to other nights though. Not much to report tonight, even though I did catch 3 flounder. Two of which were too small to keep. First one came when I was working a gulp shrimp new penny. It was the smallest flounder I've ever caught...it wasn't much bigger than the shrimp!
Down on the other end I was working a small gotcha plug for the ladyfish and snook, but guess who decides to inhale the treble hook! It was another small flounder. He hooked himself pretty good too, all three points of the treble hook were stuck in it's mouth. After some careful surgery I gave him a release.
Then working our way back I'm using my famous river killer jig and hook into a 12" flattie to call it a night. A little disappointed the flounder were small tonight. I did keep the one 12" just because I was tired of throwing back short flounder after short flounder.