Tidal flow is the key to bridge fishing.

Jeff, at Jeff’s Bait & Tackle in Marathon (M.M. 52), reported frequent catches of redfish and snook at Tom’s Harbor Cut, and sheepshead at Tom’s Channel, though he recommended Long Key Bridge. He has one customer who “trolls” Long Key Bridge for tarpon with plugs by casting out with heavy gear and walking back and forth along the bridge until he gets a strike.

“He loses a lot of plugs that way,” Jeff said, “but he has a blast with tarpon without paying for gas.”

The more common practice is to drop baits—cut mullet, ballyhoo or squid, or live shrimp or pinfish—down along those bridge pilings, with however much weight is necessary to stay down with the current. The strong tidal movements around bridges will blow light tackle gear away. Even moderate current will take 1- to 3-ounce slip sinker rigs and rock them up constantly. Many anglers use stout rods, 50-pound test and heavy terminal tackle with drop weights rigged for the bottom.

If you actually want to land your catch from one of the higher bridges, bring a bridge landing net on a long rope. Trying to land and hoist a big fish—snook, redfish, small tarpon, even a big snapper—from the fixed position of a bridge is not only sporty, but it invites heartbreak.

That’s the appeal of bridge fishing though. It takes great faith to play, and it’s almost impossible to win the jackpot. It’s the Lotto of angling.

David Still, owner of the The Tackle Box in Marathon, suggests a few general bridge fishing principles that hold true all up and down the Keys.

“The best fishing is early in the day, and around the magic hour, an hour before and after the sunset,” Still says. “Tide is a matter of preference, but it’s good to have some current running for sure. Fish the shadows of the bridges during daylight hours, where the fish hide from the sun, and generally, use a sliding sinker, 16-inch fluorocarbon leader, and a 1/0 hook for snapper and a 3/0 for grouper.”

Chumming also works to bring fish around, either with block chum in a bag hung from a long rope tied to the railing, or with chum mix balled-up and dropped in the water.

Flurocarbon leader and lively shrimp fuel the mangrove snapper bite.

About midmorning, we fished Channel Two Bridge’s west side in a pretty strong outgoing tide, but even worse, a big barracuda patrolled the waters directly below us and looked like the ruler of that roost, at least for the moment. There were also shoreline rocks to stand on, by the parking lot, and the bridge’s embankments for water-level fishing.

We targeted Vaca Cut (M.M. 53), near Marathon, for the end of the falling tide. We’d heard good things about Vaca. Fritz, at the World Class Angler in Marathon, told us that “a lot of people will go down beneath the bridge, where they can sit on chairs and fish around the pilings. They catch a little bit of everything, mostly mutton and mangroves, and tarpon on the incoming tide.”

Vaca Cut is easily accessible. A short road on the northbound side of U.S.1 lets you drive right down to the water. When we arrived, we immediately saw a tarpon rolling in the middle of the waterway, but the current still ripped through there. Water swirled under the low bridge’s pilings, and made casting anywhere near that structure a snagging hazard.

“About the only time to fish there is slack tide and when the tide just starts to pick up,” said Nate at Big Time Tackle (M.M. 53), and we could see that he was correct.

We checked our tide charts and figured that Seven Mile Bridge, on an incoming tide, would be our best bet after lunch, and for the afternoon. Our live shrimp in a 5-gallon bucket were still healthy under the oxygenation of the air pump, running on two D batteries. I kept the bucket shaded with a wet towel, and made sure I didn’t get any sunscreen from my hands into their water—instant death. Also, you can throw a little ice in there to keep them cool, and put a few rocks or sand on the bottom to let them rest and not wear themselves out during their travels. These are the lessons of the roadside angler.