Fishing Saltwater Bridges

Nathan Rich has 52,000 YouTube subscribers on his show, Southern Salt. On his channel, he’s had shows devoted to how to fish saltwater bridges, so check it out.

I don’t know if there’s a month I like better than April. With winter fading away quickly, warmer days are here, and the fishing will be fantastic!

Just like their freshwater cousins, the bite takes off in the salt this month as reds, flounder, trout and sheepshead all become increasingly active with warming water temperatures.

Now, finding them can be a challenge, as they are scattered in schools here and there amongst thousands upon thousands of acres of marshland.

However, what if there’s a place that you can count on where fish will be holding day in and day out, regardless of tide, wind or weather? A place where you don’t have to burn $75 in gas to catch dinner? Heck, a place you don’t even need a boat to catch fish? Well, you might just be driving over the answer to these questions every morning on your way to work.

The answer is bridges. From Tybee Island all the way down to St. Mary’s, it’s hard to go more than a few miles from the ocean without running into a bridge. There are literally hundreds of bridges that span our saltwater rivers, and these giant structures are the equivalent to concrete palaces that just about every species of inshore fish in Georgia calls home.

Though they’re often loaded with fish, bridges tend to receive very little pressure from anglers. Why is that? Well, bridges can be downright frustrating to fish. Figuring out which piling holds fish amongst the hundreds of others, trying to position your bait or lure properly in the current and dealing with big swings in the tide can all be challenging. Also, some bridges just hold fish better than others. So where do you start? How do you find and fish bridges properly?

Well, that’s where my friend Nathan Rich comes into the picture.

Nathan is a resident of Mobile, Ala. and has amassed a huge following of more than 52,000 subscribers in recent years on his YouTube channel, Southern Salt. A good portion of the videos he produces on YouTube are centered around bridge fishing. You may be wondering how someone fishing bridges in the Gulf of Mexico can help us in the Atlantic Ocean. The answer is pretty easy.

“A bridge is a bridge. It doesn’t matter what state or even ocean I’m fishing in. I’m looking at a bridge the same way when it comes to finding and catching fish,” said Nathan.

I managed to have a lengthy interview with Nathan talking bridge fishing while working on this GON story, and I’ll admit I came away much more confident about the subject than before our talk. Nathan mentioned during our conversation that if you can learn to look at a bridge and break it down piece by piece, you’ll catch more fish in the process. Here’s a look at how Nathan fishes bridges for multiple species of fish.

Locating Bridges: The first thing Nathan recommended is to focus your efforts on fishing the right bridges. He was quick to admit that all bridges are not created equal when it comes to holding fish.

“The things I’m looking at in a good bridge for fishing are always the same. I want to find the longest bridge I can with the most pilings in closest proximity to the ocean. That’s the first three things I’m looking for anytime I’m looking at a new bridge to fish,” said Nathan.

Nathan added that the closer a bridge is to the ocean, the higher the overall salinity and the more confident it will hold a wider range of fish species. Another important factor is the bridge pilings themselves.

“When I get out in my kayak and start looking at the bridge, I’m looking at those pilings. I want them to be covered with as many barnacles and marine growth as possible. What’s on those bridges is the foundation of the estuary around that bridge,” said Nathan.

The growth on the pilings provides food for smaller species of fish, which will attract the larger fish. Nathan says that if good growth isn’t present on the pilings, he’s not going to waste very much time fishing the bridge.

The next thing Nathan looks for when approaching a bridge for the first time is depth changes. He says that the more depth variations on a bridge span, the better your chances to locate fish.

“Difference in depths give the fish different places to stage up based on the time of year and water conditions. And it gives me options as a fisherman. If I don’t get bit down deep, I can move shallow or somewhere in between,” said Nathan.

“Options, options, options. You want as many places and depth variations as possible on a good bridge. If you have those, you’ll find fish.”

A split-shot rig is Nathan’s go-to setup for catching sheepshead around bridges.

Sheepshead: Watch much of his YouTube channel, and you’ll quickly learn that Nathan loves to target and catch sheepshead. Where he targets them in the Gulf, late fall and into winter is the prime time for targeting these convict fish around bridges, but for Georgia anglers, April is when the fish begin to move back inshore from their deeper-water winter haunts.

“For y’all over there in Georgia, the fishing on the Atlantic side is a little different. I know y’all’s tidal swings are for sure, I’ve experienced them down around the Savannah area, but the process of finding and catching sheepshead is the same no matter where you go,” said Nathan.

To target sheepshead, the right gear setup is paramount to catching fish. Nathan’s go-to rod/reel combo is a 7-2 medium-fast Chubby Rod with a Shimano Stratic 2500 series reel spooled with 20-lb. braid and a 20-lb. fluorocarbon leader.

“The Chubby Rods are made in Alabama, and they’re specifically designed for this kind of fishing. They’re a good combination of sensitivity and power, which is what you have to have to detect a subtle bite from a sheepshead, and then once you hook-up, you need that power to drag him away from the pilings,” said Nathan.

Nathan uses a No. 2 Gamakatsu octopus hook with a No. 4 split-shot pinched on 8 to 12 inches up the line. He says that the size and weight of the split-shot is going to be based on the tide you are fishing.

“The split-shot rig works really well to detect a bite from a sheepshead. You want to go with the lightest weight you can get away with to get your bait down to the fish,” Nathan said.

Nathan’s favorite sheepshead baits are the tried-and-true live fiddler crab and live shrimp. Surprisingly, he also regularly catches them on earthworms and even crickets. You can see these tactics in action on his YouTube channel.

Nathan focuses his sheepshead fishing efforts around the slowest periods of the tides. Less current just makes for better fishing. He uses a run-and-gun approach to pick apart a bridge one piling at a time.

“For me, 8 feet is the magic depth I like to start in. I can get close to the pilings and pitch in there without my kayak spooking the fish. I like to make a few pitches to each piling I come to, hitting each side of it. I’m only giving a sheepshead 30 seconds to look at it, because if he’s there, he’s gonna eat it quick,” said Nathan.

When Nathan catches a sheepshead, he gives the same piling and any adjacent pilings several more pitches to be sure there aren’t more fish in the area.

Nathan prefers to fish artificials for flounder. He says a variety of artificials work well, and his favorite is a lure that he produces at Southern Salt Bait Company known as the Hoodwink.

Flounder: Nathan targets flounder around bridges with the same rod/reel setup that he uses for sheepshead, and he uses the same piling-to-piling approach to target them. However, one key difference is that instead of preferring a slack tide for sheepshead, he likes good current to fish for flounder.

“The down-current side of a piling is where the majority of flounder will position. They get right on the edge of that slack water on the back side and nose right up to it and wait. When bait comes by the bridge and goes to tuck in behind the piling, the flounder strikes,” said Nathan.

Unlike live bait for sheepshead, Nathan prefers to fish artificials for flounder. A variety of artificials work well and his favorite is a lure that he produces at Southern Salt Bait Company called the Hoodwink. His favorite color is Hay Maker—a white body and a chartreuse tail. He threads the plastic onto a 1/4-oz. jig head.

“A 1/4-oz. works well the majority of the time, but you can go up or down based on the pull of the tide,” said Nathan.

Nathan pitches the lure as close to the backsides of pilings as possible and gives it a twitch or two before allowing it to settle to the bottom. He says that the majority of bites will occur right on the current break. If there are no takers, he moves to the next piling and repeats the process.

Bull Reds: According to Nathan, bridge pilings are the best places to target inshore bull red.

“Everywhere there’s a bridge you have two land masses and current ripping between them. This puts plenty of oxygen in the water and big bull reds need plenty of oxygen to be comfortable and active in the water.”

Nathan upsizes his equipment to target giant reds and says an extra-heavy 7-6 rod and a spinning reel spooled with 40-lb. braid and a 40-lb. fluorocarbon leader are what’s needed to wrestle with big redfish.

Nathan uses either half of a blue crab or cut mullet on a Carolina rig to tempt reds that are hanging around the bridge pilings. Unlike fishing for other species, Nathan will give the reds a little more time to find the bait before moving on.

“Look around those deeper pilings and find the strongest current you can, and cast your bait right outside of the current. If there’s a fish nearby, he’ll come eat it,” said Nathan.

Nathan will give reds 15 minutes or so to find the bait before moving down a few pilings and making another drop.

“That’s the thing about bridges, you know there’s fish there. You’ve just got to figure out where they’re holding that day. If you break it down one piling at a time, you’ll get bit,” said Nathan.

One other thing Nathan mentioned that is critical to his bridge fishing success is the use of his kayak. He says in his mind they are much more effective for picking apart bridges.

“The thing about a kayak is you can move around and up close to the bridge without disturbing the fish, and if a piling puts a scratch in your kayak, it won’t hurt your feelings nearly like it would in a brand-new glossy boat,” said Nathan.

Nathan added that peddle-driven kayaks are his favorite to use on bridges due to being able to creep up quietly, as well as being able to peddle away from a piling while fighting a fish.

As you’re finishing up this story, I hope you’re in the process of doing two things. No. 1: subscribing to Nathan’s YouTube channel Southern Salt, and No. 2: formulating a plan to fish a bridge sometime soon. The action is sure to be hot this month, and who knows what you’ll catch!