Fishing the Florida Keys - Bridge Fishing Basics

The Florida Keys bridges are right at 100 years old now. That is 100 years of sea life growth and 100 years of spoiling and erosion. The habitat created by the thousands of man-made reefs is pretty remarkable. Other than tarpon fishing, most brochures and fishing magazines give these bridges little press. The fishing at these bridges deserves much more respect.

Chartering 300 days a year, every day isn’t perfect. The seas kick up, the severe thunder storms start building, so running a dozen miles or more to catch fish is not always an option. Thankful, I learned to fish the bridges so I’ve saved a lot of trips. For meat fishermen, the bridges will produce nice yellowtail, mangrove and mutton snapper. If you are familiar with the areas of the bridge you are fishing, Hogfish, keeper Grouper, Jew fish, mackerel, pompano, permit, tarpon, sharks and even an occasional Cobia or bonefish are possible. That’s a pretty big mixed bag!

The biggest trick about fishing the bridge is adjusting to the current. An ideal half-day trip would be to catch the last 1 ½ hours of one tide then fish the slack and turn. For the snapper and actually most of the other species, chumming is the ticket. A steady chum slick and adjusting the weight on your line to keep the bait in the strike zone is the game plan. The strike zone is normally a foot or two off the bottom or a couple feet below the surface. Live bait by far produces best. Live shrimp, pilchards, small pinfish, blue crabs and the like greatly out perform dead baits. That doesn’t mean dead don’t work, just that live bait worked properly kicks it up. Remember, less is more fishing live bait. Smaller hooks, lighter leaders and the least weight you can fish.

For sharks, dead bait on the bottom or live bait on the surface. Same for the tarpon only sight casting with plugs or live bait has to be considered. Plugs can be an absolute hoot at the bridges. Mirror lures, Bombers, spooks they all have their day. I’ve had customers have 9 hits in ten casts. This is normally around the slack tide, but the fish can fire up at any time.

The biggest problem I have as a charter captain is that customers read all the glossy magazines. The magazines don’t talk about the bridges. The railroad that died at sea provides some of the oldest artificial reefs in all of Florida. Never under estimate the fishing at the bridges.

Tight lines
Capt. Dallas