Salty Sarge here again with some serious action coming out of Mathers Bridge this weekend! We started off at Man Over Board for the bait, picking up dozens of shrimp and frozen mullet.

Once to the bridge, we hit it hard landing small mangrove snappers and some nice speckled trout. The channel cats were out and about as well. Lots of pin fish near the mangroves and some keeper sheep heads as well. There’s always a common thread here with the Salty Sarge — monster fish is what we want and here is a little tale of Billy The KID.

My buddy, Billy the Kid, shows up ready to do some work on some fish. The kid comes out with the gear, 5ft Medium to heavy rod with a hell of a reel. Billy had his setup perfect — heavy duty 60lb breaded line and 80 pound leader, joining the two using a AB knot or (Alternate Blood knot) paired with SZ 6/0 hook and a 5oz pyramid weight. With the wind and the tide pulling north we set on the north side of the bridge as to let the current pull the baits into the channel. Billy had a nice size mullet maybe around 12inch which he cut into two pieces. He Baited it up and casted around 20yds into the channel. As the bait sat we managed to land some pin fish, trout and some more small mangrove snappers. Then, IT HAPPENED.

Billy’s rod started hitting, click, click, click, then followed by that sound every angler wants to hear, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz! Billy flips the trigger on the reel and hits it hard. At this point the fish is taking line like no one’s businesses. His rod was being pulled hard but he keeps on the fight. Taking drag and having a fight of the Kid’s life. We finally saw the leader come to the surface. RED DRUM comes out and breaks the surface. I drop the dunk net into the water and try to slide it underneath this monster. We get it in the net and we pull it over the bridge railing. We all were shaken by it’s massive size. It’s a monster Red Drum. We get the pictures and measurement of 46,” but no weight because my scale couldn’t handle the beast. We releases the massive Red back to the water.

The week before we also helped another angler land a 30″ 10 pound monster red drum. So Mathers Bridge has been producing some major fish and has got the locals coming out as well as the out-of-towners to get in on the fun. All and all it has just been a great week full of fishing at Mathers Bridge. Salty Sarge over and out!
Salty Sarge 478-919 -7640 Fishing Guide