2 Weeks of St. Pete Sharkin' (Pics Added)

The sandbar run in full force!

After a long and unproductive deer season in here in Ohio, I was finally able to head south to St. Petersburg to do some much needed sharking. After talking and researching with a few people on here about the Redington long pier, and after talking with Sandrayusmc and Rocky, I was informed that sharking was once again allowed on the pier, and I was invited by Rocky to come fish with the pier regulars. I got in to the Tampa airport around 11 and stopped by Dogfish tackle on the way to my grandparents house to pick up some extra hooks and wire. Of course I went overboard on tackle, I'm like a kid in a candy shop after being stuck up north so long After getting to the house, it was straight to the dock to try and make bait. The plan for the evening was to finally fish the Redington Long Pier, and take Rocky and the rest of the pier regulars up on their invitation to fish out on the "T" later that evening. Making bait was not easy. Lost a couple ladyfish and finally managed to net one whole mullet . I figured oh well at least I can run one rod. Shortly after arriving at the pier I get a call from my buddy Chris who is on his way to save the day with a cobia head! Finish rigging up just in time for bait deployment, via the rowboat at the end of the pier. It turned out to be a relatively slow night. I only had one run (on the fresh mullet) that bit just short of the hooks. Rocky caught the only shark of the night, a 5-6' dusky on a hunk of kingfish. There were a few other runs that night, with most ending in dropped baits, and one being a cutoff. Made a few friends that night, and got to see the interesting leaders everyone uses out there, which consist of 15' or so of thick yellow nylon rope spliced into a loop around a massive swivel, and a section of heavy cable ending in two big "j" hooks. Not subtle enough for my taste, but the rope makes it easy to man-handle a shark from up on the pier. The next day the quest began for more bait, and my patience was rewarded when a big school of spawning mullet came through. Chris and I met up at Indian Rocks Beach and quickly ran four lines, all with tail-less fresh mullet. Before long, Chris got to put a sandbar on his new 10/0. After beaching it and conducting a little photo shoot, I started dragging it back over the bar, when I hear the sweet sound of my 9/0 singing. Chris, who is hard of hearing, doesn't hear it! I start yelling to him to grab the rod. He still doesn't hear me so i scream "CHRIS! GRAB MY ROD!!" and he looks over and sees my spool spinning, throws his rod in the holder and goes to set hook. I finally fully revive Chris's sandbar and get back to fight this next fish, which turns out to be another decent sandbar. I was pumped!! It went on like that for a while, we had runs every half hour or less. Chris managed to land another sandbar and we lost a few more runs because the sharks wouldn't commit, or we broke them off on the many crab traps. We stopped fishing around 10, since chris had to work. 3 sharks and numerous runs from only 7:30 to 10 made for a pretty fun night.
The next day I was able to net even more mullet. One throw and we were set for a while thanks to another big spawning school, and since we had so many I set aside a few to make some smoked fish spread. It turned out great, I can see why the sharks like them so much We tried to go out again that night, but the surf was rough. I decided to run it anyway. I got lucky and made it out and dropped the bait, but caught a huge breaker about 100 yards out and plunged into the trough,dumping myself and rolling the kayak and filling it with water. (sit-ins suck!!). I will admit I was terrified, being so far off the beach, in the water, in the middle of the night, smelling like mullet. I put as much of myself in the submerged yak as possible, and half drifted-half paddled back to land. By the time I got out, the bait had washed back to shore anyway. We said screw the beach, and ran by the house and picked up some casting rigs and headed down to Passe-a-grille. Within 10 minutes, something smashed my 4/0, but i forgot i had been testing my new drag and had it hammered down, so when the reel engaged the line popped. Nothing else the rest of the night, save for a few sharpnose and a baby blacktip.
We hadn't planned on fishing Wednesday night, but the weather was perfect for yakking so I couldn't resist. We made plans around 5p.m. and met at Indian Rocks around 7. Chris got first hookup on his 9/0, which turned out to be a 4-5' sandbar. Somebody else had lost him before us. Then came my turn. My 9/0 with our smallest mullet started rolling out, I let him eat, and then set the hooks. This fish fought much harder than the others and took a few good little runs. Then, after 15 minutes I beached my current best land-based shark, an (estimated) 7' sandbar. This was the first trip I was able to put everything together and now I had a 7 footer to show for it! We packed up early again that night, since chris had to work in the morning, and we were off the sand by 11.
The next night we fished we were faced with an impending cold front with westerly winds, so we decided to fish inside the Passe-a-grille pass to avoid the surf. Turns out an outgoing tide right into the wind makes for some serious waves. But none were breaking so I ran baits anyway. The tide was really ripping, and the first rod I ran was quickly washed back up, but we let it sit where it was. Same story with the other rods. Finally, we had a run, but it was dropped. Shortly thereafter, we had another run dropped also. I was not about to re-kayak baits in the building weather, so we used surf casting gear, with no success. Finally, the storm was right on us, and we quickly tossed everything into the trucks and ran to the nearest Circle K to ride out the storm. We sat under the awning and ate gas station food and watched the rain and lightning roll in.
For our next excursion we decided to run an hour south to a pass I hadn't sharked yet but always thought looked promising. We put out mullet on the incoming tide with no success. Finally, just as the tide was about to turn, Chris snagged a big cownose ray, and I was hoping things would now come together. I ballooned out a big chunk of wing out about 75 yards and popped it off, and then dropped another wing chunk on my other 9/0 right down by the pilings. Soon, my far bait got a nice run. It never slowed down, so after about 10 seconds I set hooks. The fish never stopped taking line, and after a while started zig-zagging across the pass. Chris's lines were still out, and I was afraid the fish might cross them, so I yelled for him to bring his lines in. He didn't hear me. Sure enough, that shark cut right over chris's line. I yelled to him that he didn't have a fish on, that we were tangled, but he didn't hear me and engaged his reel and set the hook. Shortly thereafter the hooks pulled on my fish and I could see where Chris had his line wrapped and pulling at a different angle on my line. Oh well, lesson learned. Stagger lines more.
The next night found us with calmer weather and another 15 fresh mullet, and we loaded up the yak and went back to Indian Rocks Beach. We had 3 friends joining us on this trip. First run came on the 10/0, and having never caught a big shark before, we let our friend Anthony take the rod. For about 15 minutes this fish worked him over, never making any long runs, but bulldogging its way out. Finally, it just stops coming in. It was just stuck about 25 yards out. We tried to manhandle the fish in, but eventually broke the 130lb dacron. We really didn't have a choice, as none of us were quite ready to wade out that far to a very pissed off who-knows-what. We figured later that it was a jewfish stuck on the bar, and that would explain why we never saw a dorsal. We had plenty of other runs that night, and got 2 more sandbars to the beach. It went on like this the rest of the trip, we'd hit the beach and haul in sandbar after sandbar, all around 6'.
All in all it was a great trip. This was the first "real" land based shark fishing expedition I'd had the chance to put together, and I must say things came together nicely. I now have a few fish under my belt, including the respectable 7 foot sandbar. I learned a lot about what to change and what to bring the next time, and I will be even more prepared now for the spring and summer months when the truly big sharks are at stake. Thanks to everyone on this site for your advice. This forum is a wealth of information!