It’s no secret that bridges are awesome places to fish. As a kid, I used to spend countless hours on the Gandy catwalks fishing for anything that would bite, and then using that as bait to catch something bigger. I still find myself spending time under the bridge, although boats now help me navigate the bridge’s nooks and crannies. Among others, pompano, mangrove snapper, flounder and tarpon keep me coming back to the bridge these days. Recently, my buddy Scotty and I launched the skiff with pompano on the brain. We were tossing Doc’s Goofy Jigs with teaser flies; a local favorite for pompano.
Jigging the bridge can be hit or miss. Sometimes you have to move up and down the length of the bridge to locate a couple of fish. Sometimes you can find them at the first spot you try, and catch your limit without fuss. Scotty and I ran into a decent bite.
We caught a few different species before we found what we were looking for.
A couple of big black drum crashed the party as well. Cobia, tarpon, grouper, trout, snook, reds, grunts, lady fish, pin fish, jack crevalle and more are all possibilities when jigging the bridge. You really never know what you are going to pull up.
Often, it is the teaser fly that ends up getting the bite.
Not much to them.
These ended up coming home with us. The snapper was quickly introduced to the frying pan. The tasty little golden nuggets have an appointment with the oven.
