It was a pretty great outing at Mathers Bridge. Armed with 1/2oz. bell weights, a nice fluorescent red bead, a 45lb. swivel and about 18” of 30lb. leader with a 1/0 needle point hook, and a bucket-o-shrimp, I got to work quickly. It started out with a couple of nice whiting. A school of Mangrove snapper showed up, but unfortunately there was not much size to them.

At dusk our shrimp count started to run dangerously low, but luckily a fellow angler was hanging it up for the day and generously donated us his remaining live mullet. Blessed be the Bait Gods, we were saved!

We tried free-lining the mullet with little success, but I tried a different approach, cutting the mullet into little snack-sized morsels. Then BOOM, the game was on!

Tap-tap the fish are sending me Morse code, “come get some” and I do. I get a nice sold pull on my pole. Rod goes up, crank down on the reel and I land another trout. The story gets better, it must be some kind of record or something. I casted the same cut bait out 8 times in a row and bought in a trout every time, all sliver trout. It was like I was the star of the show and I let it be known. With every hook I set I was yelling like a champion, “Come get some” or “fish on”, I slayed some trout. There may not have been any size to them, but I was king of the bridge for a good 20 minutes and that makes up for the days where you would pay good money for a nice bite. All in all it was a fantastic day of fishing at Mathers Bridge, a great place to make some memories with family and friends. I’m sure there’s more to come from Mathers. Salty Sarge signing off.