Quarter-Mile on the Nile
Niles Channel Bridge, 25 miles East of Key West, FL - July 9th, 2004

The final night of my 4 days in the Keys, I was invited to do an "all-nighter" of bridge fishing with some friends. It was the first time I had fished a bridge in the Florida Keys at night. I will definately do it again... but next time I'll bring a bigger rod.

Friday July 9th, I checked out of my room at Breezy Palms Resort in Islamorada, where I had spent the 4 previous days with family. I was headed south on A1A by noon. The friends I was planning to meet in Big Pine Key were not planning to leave Boca until 2pm. I had a few hours to kill, so I headed down to Key West. I drove around town for about an hour, stopped for a photo on the east side of the Key, then headed back east towards Niles Channel bridge where my buddy Joe has had a lot of fishing success over the years.

I was thoroughly exhausted and dehydrated from having spent several days in the Keys sun already. When I got to the parking area at Niles Channel, I just kept my car running with the air conditioning blasting and almost took a nap while I was waiting for Joe and Chuck to arrive. While I was sitting there, I noticed some movement out of the corner of my eye. Three large iguanas had started doing a little mating dance about 20 feet away. I dug out my camera and snapped a shot of the biggest one.

Chuck and Joe finally show up around 5:30. As we were unpacking our gear, another car arrived with a few more of Joe's friends. The amount of rods, coolers, chairs, tackle boxes, and other essentials was incredible. I alone had a cooler full of bait that I had stockpiled over the previous few days, a cooler of food and liquids, a tackle box, 2 heavy spinner rods, and a backpack of other essentials. Thank goodness I had borrowed my step-father's cart to haul my gear. The other guys had loaded most of their stuff onto an industrial dolly. Fully loaded, it took 2 guys to push it down the decomissioned bridge to the spot where we set up camp. I had never gone fishing like this before. It was like camping on concrete. No, actually it WAS camping on concrete!

Now keep in mind, I was already drained, my back was hurting, and I was a bit dehydrated from being out in the sun. What I thought would be a short walk out on the bridge turned out to be a 1/4 mile hike. It was a long friggin' walk, and I was dragging about 60lbs of gear. Oh how I wish I had brought the mini-moto motorcycle that I had bought a month before. I'm sure I could have found a way to hook up a trailer hitch to haul all my gear! haha Maybe next time.

We finally set up camp, rigged our rods, chummed the water, and got out baits wet. It didn't take long before the first few snappers were reeled in. I was the first to hook a shark. It was on one of Joe's dozen rods, and I happened to be the closeet to it at the time. It was a small nurse shark of about 15#s. Being new at landing fish from 15 feet up, I handed Joe the big rod to let him demonstrate the "flip" technique of hauling medium sized fish onto the deck. I released the little shark soon after the hook was pulled. Joe was the next to get the "curse of the nurse." A little over 3 feet, it was the first to require the drop net. Again, it was another learning experience for me. The 3ft diameter shallow net was lowered to the water, the shark was guided over it, and the net was hauled up.

About 30 minutes after Joe's shark, one of my two UglyStick/Sigma spinners started to sing. I heaved back into a solid hookset and held on for the ride. The big fish took about 70 yards of the 25# Ande mono off my reel before I could persuade it to give a little back. The line dance began as the fish decided to swim parallel to the bridge, across everyone else's lines, for about 200 feet. By this time, I had recovered enough line to raise the mystery fish to the surface. It was a big nurse shark. Very big. By far the largest I've ever fought. We estimated the length at about 6 feet. I had no intention of keeping this magnificent garbage scow. It was considered a "catch", so I locked my drag, pointed the rod tip down towards the fish, and with a quick tug broke the line. If my arms weren't sore already, they certainly were now. But in the end, I'd gladly wear myself out fighting big fish!

The sun was beginning to set now. I fired up my camera to take a few scenic shots. Just a clue about how far we walked... in the 5th photo down on the right, our cars were parked at the treeline near the vanishing point of the bridge. See, I wasn't kidding about the long walk! haha

(Incomplete story. I'm still writing it.)

-->Bill

< BACK