Bridge Fishing in Martin County
April 9th, 2008
The Indian River and Saint Lucie River are home to several great hotspots for fish. Some of the most obvious of those are the various bridges throughout the county. The county has a good mix of older, lower to the water bridges and a few very new bridges. Both old and new bridges are good sanctuaries for fish for several reasons, all of them seem to have their own little ecosystem in place from barnacles to bait fish on up to bigger toothy predators.
First, the older bridges are favorites of many fishermen. Not necessarily because we have a lot of older fishermen either (hope I don’t take a beating for that one). The older bridges are typically lower to the water and have more support structures. The bridges being lower to the water has a bigger causes the bridge to effect the lighting in the water more so than the newer bridges. During the day, the lower bridges cast a darker shadow into the water, giving the predators a place to lie in ambush of the bait fish. At night, my personal time to go after the snook, the lower bridges have more of a pronounced shadow line than the newer bridges because if the bridge is lower, the lights on the bridge are also lower to the water.
The Palm City bridge is an older bridge but it’s elevated off the water to allow boat traffic without a draw bridge. One of the best bridges is the old Roosevelt bridge. This is a very popular spot for several reasons, first is the fact that this is an old style draw bridge, so it sits pretty low to the water. Second, there is the railroad bridge just a short distance away, providing even more fish habitat. Third, part of the old Roosevelt bridge is submerged leaving even more underwater habitat to create a perfect ground for sport fish. A few hundred yards up river is the new Roosevelt bridge, a tall bridge with a catwalk underneath for bridge fishermen.
The newer bridges like the Roosevelt or the Sewall’s Point bridges are different than the older bridges in that they are much higher than the older bridges and allow for more boat traffic. The downside is that the bridge lights are much further from the surface, but they still cast a defined shadow line. One thing these bridges have going for them is their large base platforms at the water level. These are very wide and can manipulate the flow of the current, causing eddies where bait fish will congregate. Some of the better spots to fish these bridges are near the shadow line on the back side of the current. You can also get strikes from snook near some of the lighting that is down lower, like the lights near the end of the channel. There always seems to be several snook hanging out there to see what snack the current will bring.
