Sailfish City - Stuart Florida Community Site

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.

If you’ve been around the coast for long, you’ve undoubtedly seen a lot of docks with lights hanging under the dock to illuminate the water.  Many docks have green light eminating from underneath in an effort to attract bait fish and ultimately predators, like snook.  A company out of Tampa Bay, Florida has taken this a step further and made undersea illumination.  These lights are actually submerged in the water off of your dock, marina, harbor, canal or seawall.  What’s the difference does it make if the light is beneath the surface?  True illumination.  You won’t have the water reflecting the light back to you.  You will be able to see fish the silhouette of all the fish swimming over the lights.  Not only can you just look down and see when a big snook is sitting waiting for a nice shrimp to be dropped on his head, but it makes for a nice view as well.  Turning your dock or marina into your own personal aquarium.  Check out this video of the lights at work:
 

Yesterday was supposed to be 60% showers and miserable all day, so says the weatherman.  What we ended up getting was mostly clear skies with a lot of sunshine and a cool, gentle breeze.  My buddy John gave me a call, he wants to go fishing later that night, the tide starts going out at the bridge to Sewall’s Point at about 11:00 PM.  So we grabbed some bait and hit the water. 

It was right around 11:00 when we got to the bridge but the tide really wasn’t moving yet, it was still slack tide.  We tried to anchor and let the tide drift us back into the shadowline of the bridge but instead the wind kept grabbing us and pushing us out into the channel.  After a few tries we decided to just pull up to the slab right next to the channel and lash up the boat.  We found a nice cozy little position where the tide would help keep the boat in place while the wind wouldn’t catch us so much.

The fishing was a little slow for awhile, but it was relaxing.  We had a few lounge chairs and went up to spread out underneath the bridge, I went to the end of the channel where the light was.  Not to mention, that’s where the snook were too.  I had at one point 4 or 5 in the water under me but most of them just weren’t striking.  I tried cut bait and live shrimp with only one strike from an undersized snook.  I stayed there for the next couple hours trying different things but mostly just having fun while my bud Steve was on the other side of the bridge pulling a few black drum out of the water.

Sitting there, toying with my snook I heard it, rain was coming.  I looked around and seen it at the West side of the bridge just hitting the water and starting to move our way.  It was only a slight drizzle so we just huddled up under the bridge for a few minutes until it passed.  After it stopped I went back down to the end of the channel to try my luck with that big snook that’s hanging out in the shadow.  Turns out he was no dummy, he got that big for a reason.  He’d swim up to my bait and check it out and let it float on by uneaten.  I was out there probably another 15 minutes before it started.

The water was calm and glassy with barely a ripple.  There was only a slight breeze and some lightning way off on the horizon.  Then I felt a slight breeze and could hear the rain coming again.  I decided not to wait and retreat under the bridge once again, knowing another little shower was on the way.  In hindsight, I’m glad I made that call.  This was very unlike the previous shower, this was like a tropical storm.

The moment I got under the bridge our lounge chairs started skating down the concrete toward the water.  Buckets started blowing over, the the rain was coming in sideways under the bridge.  We had to take refuge behind a pillar from the wind and the rain, gathering everything we had with us to keep the wind from taking it into the water.  We sat back there for a few minutes jokingly asking where this came from?  It was calm just 30 seconds before.  That’s when I remembered, my wife’s nice expensive camera I brought with me was on the dash of the boat.  I made a bee-line for the boat only to catch a face full of wind as soon as I came around the pillar.  It had gotten even stronger.

I had to lean into the wind to get to the boat.  Had the wind suddenly stopped I would have fallen flat on my face.  I could see the waves coming and wrapping up again the boat.  What had just been a ripple was now 3 to 4 foot waves slamming the side of the boat.  I jumped on and secured everything I could, but the little bumper we had between the boat and the bridge wasn’t enough.  While I was below I could hear the sound of fiberglass crunching.  I made my way back to the pit and yelled for John and Steve to help me, we needed to do something and quick.

First thing we tried was putting another bumper in place, but the bumpers weren’t doing anything.  John was doing everything he could to keep the bumper between the boat and the bridge but the waves were to much.  That’s when Steve yells out, “Hey man, you’re dive platform is GONE”.  I looked back at John to see that blank look on his face as he stared back at me.  “I think we’re going to have to make a run for it man”, he yells.  The wind was howling so bad now I could barely hear him.  Steve starts grabbing our gear off the bridge while John does what he can to keep the boat in one peice, I get one of the engines started so we can try to pull out, the wind and waves keeping us pinned to the bridge.

After I got the motor running I went back to the side of the boat to find John screaming to have the lines cut, it was to hard to untie them in the driving rain and the boat moving up and down 3 feet at a time.  Steve grabs the knife we luckily had up on the bridge and makes short work of the mooring lines, cutting it in one stroke.  He gets aboard and we try to push off.  As you may imagine, that didn’t work.  John jumped on board and I made him take the helm, I wasn’t about to be responsible for what we were about to do to the side of his boat.  He hit the gas and away we went into the dark.  Once we were out in the open water it was still rough, a lot rougher than I’d ever seen it in the river, but it was manageable. 

We made our way back to the dock, having our fair share of continued bad luck when we got there.  To make a long story short, the mooring line that we had cut away from the bridge was still trailing behind the boat.  When we got to the dock and tried to back the boat around, the line got sucked into one of the props, killing one of the motors and at the same time getting wrapped around the rudder.  With only one engine and no rudder, there was no way to stear the boat.  We ended up having to basically lasso the dock and wheel the boat around by hand to secure it.  All this time, still in pouring, cold rain.

What began as a relaxing fishing trip on a calm, clear, star filled night ended with us pulling a floating death trap back to the dock soaking wet and freezing cold.  This just goes to show you how quickly things can change.  I would love to say there is something we could have done differently.  But this is just a matter of bad luck and uncontrollable circumanstance.  We had no idea the weather would change so quickly and so drastically.  Not to mention the complete shift in the wind from Easterly to Southerly.  The conditions were great for where we moored when we did, but once it shifted, it was the perfect conditions to give that boat the beating of it’s life.  I just don’t look forward to the weeks of repairs to the boat before we can get it out again.  The moral of the story?  Well, shit happens.