2011 a year to remember,,,,including a pier caught Mako

Almost there ...

Me with my first shark ...

Best for last ...

All in all it's been a lot of fun and I know I've learned a lot from everyone. Looking forward to a good year.

Thanks for the pics Brett. Most of those pics are from the last 3 months. Maybe Joey will put a bull shark pic up. The first pic is Tater in the blue and John Cuthrell in the white with a baby tiger. The kid on the red reel is Gradey. JD Hammer said Gradey is in it for life. Gradey got a 9/0 for Christmas and his brother Dalton got a 14. Some fine Christmas presents. Towards the end is a couple nice tigers with my old friend Sean Watson. John Cuthrell and I have been the steadiest so most of the count goes to us. Everyone really gets tired of my Avet screaming. At one point the only one who laughed was me. The lucky streak passes as always. My son Jamie caught a 7' sand bar who's upper tail fin was mostly gone. Earlier that day he got his but kicked by a nice shark and we videoed it. Pretty good stuf. My last words explains it all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlNwZSDF ... ata_player.
Another guy in there is Jason Todd. Ole tiger Todd. Lucky to say the least. He must have carma on his side. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=na8ZmKI8 ... ata_player

I got to fish with JD Hammer. Them ole sharks just seem to know who's bait they eating. They find JD's bait. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGLFN8jH ... ata_player
The mako was rough at the pier. Tater stuck it with a gaff and it emedeatly shuck it and the gaff roap wraped around the leader Probaly 10 wraps. One gaff down. The next gaff hit him and he bit the roap off. By that time I had the head roap on the way down and hit it the first shot. The whole time he was upset about getting caught. He ate good. Every one who helped got a chunk. Out of all the sharks we Probaly harvested 5 or 6. We had no dead wash ups so our techniques are proving successful. We had a shark on the deck befor 9:00am Jan 1 2012. Here is another good video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGL ... ata_player

Thanks for the pics Brett. Most of those pics are from the last 3 months. Maybe Joey will put a bull shark pic up. The first pic is Tater in the blue and John Cuthrell in the white with a baby tiger. The kid on the red reel is Gradey. JD Hammer said Gradey is in it for life. Gradey got a 9/0 for Christmas and his brother Dalton got a 14. Some fine Christmas presents. Towards the end is a couple nice tigers with my old friend Sean Watson. John Cuthrell and I have been the steadiest so most of the count goes to us. Everyone really gets tired of my Avet screaming. At one point the only one who laughed was me. The lucky streak passes as always. My son Jamie caught a 7' sand bar who's upper tail fin was mostly gone. Earlier that day he got his but kicked by a nice shark and we videoed it. Pretty good stuf. My last words explains it all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlNwZSDF ... ata_player.
Another guy in there is Jason Todd. Ole tiger Todd. Lucky to say the least. He must have carma on his side.
I got to fish with JD Hammer. Them ole sharks just seem to know who's bait they eating. They find JD's bait. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGLFN8jH ... ata_player
The mako was rough at the pier. Tater stuck it with a gaff and it emedeatly shuck it and the gaff roap wraped around the leader Probaly 10 wraps. One gaff down. The next gaff hit him and he bit the roap off. By that time I had the head roap on the way down and hit it the first shot. The whole time he was upset about getting caught. He ate good. Every one who helped got a chunk. Out of all the sharks we Probaly harvested 5 or 6. We had no dead wash ups so our techniques are proving successful. We had a shark on the deck befor 9:00am Jan 1 2012. Here is another good video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGL ... ata_player

Absolutely awesome. Which pier is that? I have always dreamed of catching a mako, thats amazing....nice catch, I am jealous

Ernie Polk is the stuff of legends .Keep an eye on this guy because he will continue to make catches never made before and maybe never equaled from a beach or a pier.Thanks Ernie for your contributions to the sport of land-based shark fishing.

ERIE---bill tells me great stories about you and your gang---impressive to say the lease----maybe i will get to meet you this year when i am down in the pensacola area--great great reports----wish you would put up more reports but i understand

sharkin sonny

Ernie your pier is the best sharking pier I ever fished. Can't wait to go back. Your ways of bringing the shark up on the pier and deployig the bait was awesome.

For me, the best shark that i ever caught, was also the first one that i ever caught - an over 9ft hammerhead shark on a Penn 4/0 NOT WIDE That catch got me hooked FOR LIFE FOR SHARK FISHING!
It was the BEST SHARK FISHING SHOW that was displayed with as much as 5 shark fishermen from the most rookie ones all the way up to LEGENDS like JDHAMMER - unbelievable catch, adrenaline rush - what else can i say - it was the BEST SHARK FISHING NIGHT OF MY LIFE SO FAR!
Here is a reminder of that post: viewtopic.php?p=18053#p18053
and
viewtopic.php?p=18145#p18145 - where the hammer can be seen.

P.S. Did i mention the fact that - back then, being a rookie - that Penn 4/0 reel had the cranking handle on the left side? Now that i'm thinking about it - no wonder what there was a need of 5 people to crank the fish in - 2 hours of fight.

boghy man i fought that shark too and you didnt put a picture of me hahahahaha i still got pictures of all of us fighting that shark and pictures of the shark in my facebook....i even remember what he ate , a stingray wing

Wow .....that is one heck of a yr and some really amazing catches. I must say I want a mako pretty bad. Good stuff guys. Maybe next time I'm in pensecola ill get to say hello and meet you guys.

Hope 2012 is a rockin yr as well.

man you guys really cleaned house this year congrats bro....

ERIE---you have caught more sharks than just about anybody i know of---tell us the thinking and the point where you changed to circles---alot of the sharkers would never give up the j hooks---whats your story

thanks

sonny

Wow awesome Mako! Way to go Ernie!!

These pics are awesome! did the mako jump? Huge tiger and bull by the way.

Y'all was asking about the circle hooks and why. I'll start with why first. The thought of letting a fish go with a hook in it's throat has always bothered me. The circle hooks get the fish in the mouth 9 times out of 10. We had 2 sharks this year come in hooked in the gill rake. I lost one tiger that was hooked in the gut, he spit the gut up and pulled the hook out as I watched. The important thing is no dead wash ups this year. In the past all my wash ups was hooked in the throat or gut with a J hook. It makes since to use circle hooks because I am primarly a catch and release shark fisherman. Why use a hook that has the potential to kill the fish I am releasing. The experiments we have ran proves that the hook up rate is just as good. Some will Miss the circle that a j hook would have got. But some that the circle gets the j hook will not. All in all ya trade tit for tat. We still jack up just after the line is absolutely tight. A circle hook hooks the fish best if it's swimming away from the fisherman. The running man is the way. The skin is tough and the shark holds the bait like a bull dog so after the hook is in place ya need to jack up to get the hook to dig all the way up. Circle hooks work alot better in rough surf. Alot of times the rock or sand bag will set the hook along with the pressure of the pole. They have a unexpected amazing amount af torque. Sneaky to say the least. I am planning on making a post on some rigs we been useing. The most important thing is the hook has to be exposed. The most simple is the one I like best. A single 18/0 tuna hook hooked in the nose of a Bonita. Sometimes if the hook ant in it's mouth it won't hook the fish but the fish feels no steel and will come back because it's reved up and not spooked. It bites steel and it's likely to throw it down. Like I said I will do a post for the circle hooks.
Oh yea I put another video on page 2 that is Probaly the best of the three. The last link doesn't work. Thanks for all the good replies.

Never heard of anybody doing the running man with circle hooks, but it does make sense considering gunning the boat to set up on certain fish.