When Rene de Dios was alive every year i can remember that he competed in the same set of shark tournaments like clockwork- come hell or high water.The free spirit in him manifested itself in his carefree vagabond fishing lifestyle that made chasing the sharks the only important thing in his life,,,,,,,whenever it was shark tournament time every year Rene was there chasing the high of catching sharks and forgetting about living an ordinary life but instead dreaming of the next monster and beating the competition without mercy.In this instance Rene was fishing the kick off event of the Annual Key West Fishing Tournament that is held in December and the tournament runs until April of each year.Rene had his double wide trailer home on the water in Taverneir key and from there he often fished Mollasses reef a very productive place to target big sharks.He caught the Tiger shark fishing with his buddy Ham (Marco Matione) and it weighed 698 lbs and was weighed in Key west at the Oceanside marina which was one of the places that was an official weigh station for the Key west tournament.
Rene and his compadre Ralph Diaz on the dock behind his Taverneir key house with a typical Mollasses reef catch.
The massive jaws of the the 698 lb Tiger.
Rene and Ham with the 698 lb Tiger shark on the scales.
Rene fighting a shark at Mollasses reef with his long rod and standing up to boot.
Rene and his usual crew Ralph, and Hass gaffing a hammer from Rene's old battle ax single outboard boat.
SOUTH FLORIDA SHARK CLUB -President SFSC-Founding Member est 1983 SFSC-Website Administrator BIG HAMMER SHARK TOURNAMENT -Founder Rene Memorial Sharkathon -Founder NMFS Shark Tagger