I had my first journey all the way down to the Florida Keys again in November the place we explored the lengths of the keys from Key Largo all the way in which all the way down to Key West. Whereas we have been fairly busy this journey and the climate shifted not even midway by means of the journey, I did handle to get some fishing time in. After studying and seeing a lot on-line concerning the fishing on the various bridges within the Keys I needed to attempt it no less than for slightly bit this journey. So on our second day within the Keys, I obtained to fish the Channel 2 Bridge in Islamorada for a few hours making an attempt to catch no matter tropical species I might get down right here. In order that morning on the way in which to the bridge we made a cease at IslaMarina to seize a few issues we would want for fishing the bridge. Some reside shrimp and a block of chum, each of those are key for bridge fishing.
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The Channel 2 bridge is the primary bridge you’ll run into as you make your method south from Decrease Matecumbe Key in direction of Lengthy Key. The bridge has a pedestrian and fishing bridge adjoining to the freeway bridge on the north gulf aspect. There may be parking on each side of the bridge however the northern aspect on Decrease Matecumbe Secret is a bigger paved car parking zone whereas, the southern aspect car parking zone is a handful of spots on some gravel.
We parked within the north aspect car parking zone and I obtained to loading up my pier cart with my gear. I like to recommend taking some kind of cart to lug your gear round, it could have been a extremely lengthy stroll on the market if I needed to perform every little thing by hand. Different issues I like to recommend to pack with you is a few kind of sunshade and a folding chair you probably have the house. There is no such thing as a shade or seats on the market on the Channel 2 bridge and whereas the climate wasn’t too scorching in November I might think about it being depressing out right here within the hotter months.
We walked out about midway throughout the bridge organising on one of many fishing platforms. I attempted to choose a spot that appeared to be a bit deeper than the remaining, however truthfully, most of it seemed fairly comparable depth-wise. One other noticeable factor was the present was ripping by means of the bridge, this may show to be a little bit of an issue for me. There I obtained to unloading my gear and rigging up my fishing rods. I introduced out 4 rods with me, a few heavier set rods, and a few lighter inshore rods. A Yeti GoBox 15 works fairly properly as a tacklebox, even after 800 miles of driving half of it by means of storms it stayed dry inside. The plan was to set out the large rods with a giant shrimp or a bit of minimize bait, and on the inshore rods, I used to be going to throw a lighter Carolina rig with a reside shrimp or a sabiki to try to make some bait.
As soon as I obtained the rods rigged up I left them within the pier cart as I obtained my block of chum prepared. I put it right into a mesh chum bag and dropped it down into the present on some paracord. That is key for fishing the bridges within the Florida Keys, this attracts in life from throughout because the chum slick flows. This rapidly introduced in a college of leatherjacket, also called crazyfish. These are a slim silvery fish, with venomous spines within the dorsal and anal fins. With the chum going I began off with making an attempt to catch some bait on the sabiki.
I attempted casting a bit away from the bridge first to try to see if I might discover some pilchards or another baitfish however simply saved hooking up on crazyfish. So with the sabiki not working away from the bridge, I tipped the sabiki rig with some tiny items of shrimp hoping for some pinfish or possibly even little grunts close to the bridge pilings. As an alternative of bait, all I caught was an assortment of aquarium fish. I obtained a sergeant main, a porkfish, a child yellowtail snapper, and a slippery dick wrasse. Whereas these little guys have been all the proper dimension for bait, all of them needed to be thrown again. All of them aside from the yellowtail snapper are thought-about decorative fish and may’t be killed. With the right license, you could possibly preserve them for an aquarium however I had no such factor. The yellowtail snapper was simply too small and method undersized. So whereas I used to be stoked to be catching new tropical species this did make an issue for my plan of getting cutbait. So I ended up getting one other crazyfish and chopping it up into a couple of chunks for the large rods.
With the large rods now set out I converted to my different inshore rod and tried fishing the Carolina rig with reside shrimp. This didn’t work out so properly, the present was simply to robust for me to achieve backside. However once I switched to a heavier egg sinker I couldn’t really feel the chunk and simply had shrimp after shrimp stolen off the hook. I did ultimately catch one other yellowtail snapper although however it was once more too small. I used to be truthfully shocked it managed to get that circle hook in its mouth. However once more no less than it was a cool fish I often don’t see within the northern gulf.
After not having any success making an attempt to fish the Carolina rig I attempted to only freeline a shrimp proper behind the chum bag to all of the hungry chubs that have been pecking on the bits of fish coming from the bag, however they have been surprisingly skittish. They might bolt on the sight of the shrimp even with it being weightless and on a 10lb fluorocarbon chief. After making an attempt all that for a pair hours I had only a handful of small fish to point out for it, whereas the water was extremely vigorous. My inexperience with the world and brief fishing window made for a tricky couple of hours on the water. I’ll undoubtedly attempt once more sometime quickly, hopefully when the climate and tides are extra favorable. As a comfort although that evening at Mallory Sq. in Key West, after a pleasant dinner with my spouse. I did handle to get a mangrove snapper from the seawall and broke off on a small tarpon, each on the leftover reside shrimp in my livewell.
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