The Blacktip challenge 2014 found yours truly less then prepared with other business and family obligations affording me little spare time to properly prepare for the three day sprint style shark tournament.Our bait situation was less then expected but thank God my brother George who buys and sells seafood was able to secure 25 lbs of fresh mackeral for our team. Our other baits were 3 fresh dolphin carcasses ,2 fresh bonitas ,1 -10 lb barracuda and the rest of our bait was of the frozen type which we left for last with no better results.The SFSC club had four teams representing it in this years Blacktip Challenge and two of those Teams were sweeping the competition until the very last night.There was tension as tournament organizers realized the possibility of a complete sweep by Teams representing the South Florida Shark Club but despite the cold tension that ensued we prevailed to represent in fine fashion the sport we love .
The first night and then the first day of the tourney saw anglers dealing with some of the most miserable weather conditions I have ever expierienced fishing a shark tournament with rain mixed with cold tempatures and high surf.The SFSC teams weathered the storms and continued to do battle in the less then desirable conditions and on the second day Shannon Bustamante of "Team Hammer N the Phenoms" was on top with biggest shark a 9 foot bull shark,Biggest Blacktip with 6 ft 7 inch specimen and Biggest Blacktip caught on a circle hook ."Team Dirty South" Raymundo Muniz was holding the second place lead with 8 ft 9 inch Bull shark and "Team KEEPING IT REEL" composed of members of the old Team Lake Worth Sharkers had Third Place with a 8 ft 4 inch bull shark. Other very large fish were lost after pulled hooks and nearly empty reel on one occasion,,not every time a monster is hooked will it be landed.
During the three day event our team(Shark Fever) fished three different spots (south)because we knew that trying some of the more northerly big shark locations would spell having to confront bigger then normal surf conditions produced by the nasty combination of cold & freezing rain that came down on us for more than 24 hours soaking every piece of dry clothes in our camp .Our canopy leaked like a sieve after being twisted out of shape by a gust of wind and our dry sleeping bags were soaked after half a day of continuos cold downpours,it felt like a monsoon mixed with the 60 degrees winter temps which made for a very cold wet miserable handful of team mates.Thursday night at 11 pm we'd had enough and had to go home to recoup and come back strong the next day.Our second night at our of our favorite beaches with slightly better baits produced a big ZERO SHARKS for our Team Shark Fever.
In total our Team ended up catching three blacktip sharks for our efforts.We gave it our all,never gave up and fought until the end. I am thankful to our entire team for the super human effort Jonathan-Tyler and Scott. We want to thank Josh Jorgensen once again for putting together this one of kind sprint style shark tournament.
SHARK ONE
Tyler Parker "the travelin Sharkmen" fights his first tipper of the tourney
SHARK TWO
fighting sharks while trying to stay dry
our second blacktip of the day Jonathan and I pose for picture in the rain with the feisty tipper
SHARK THREE
On the the last day day of the tourney we moved camp and joined Team Hammer n the Phenoms for a final effort to find a monster shark .The long haul to the spot was not what our team was looking forward to but we welcomed the chance to fish alongside some of the best anglers and very good friends and using a fresh caught Jack crevalle donated by local fishing great Jimmy Harris I was able to land my last shark of the tourney another blacktip shark.
Later that night on the home stretch of the tourney Shannon (Seaweed the Kahuna)after doing a 400 yard drop with a big ray was rewarded with a hard fighting 8 ft 4 inch Bull shark that was the last one our teams would catch.I want to thank everyone that fished the tourney and to everyone that came out and fished and broke bread with us.As we were headed home at 5 minutes to 12 pm we recieved word that Adam Lopez of Team KEEPING IT REEL was getting spooled on a Penn 14/0 at that very moment and Josh had been notified by phone but as the spool got to 1/8 full the hooks pulled on the giant fish.End of the tourney .Thanks again to all for your valiant efforts
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
Somthing felt very very diffrent about this tournament!!
For the first time ever, I for myself who has a fiery competitive nature was truly
Pulling for my brothers Ray, Cuban Eddie, Adam Looez, Willie Fundora, Tyler, tree Hopper,
Billy , Joe, Kevin, tony and all the rest!!!
After the passionate meetings together about our shark club and what really
Matters, I speak for myself when I say this although I notice it in all of you.
It didn't matter who won a category as long as it was another SFSC brother!!
When we were on top and winning for the first time ever I was anxious and hoping
One if you guys would knock me out and help fill more winning categories!!
Nice report and pics, fishing conditions looked brutal from what I was hearing from everybody.
Great report Will!!! SFSC definitely represented this year despite the horrible conditions!!!
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Congrats to all you guys. You put in the time and caught some really nice Sharks. And you guys have to travel north and then way back south after fishing all night. Hardcore Shark Fishing 101. Congrats Fellas!!!! Happy for all you guys!!!
Great work guys. Way to bear down through the elements.
Wish I had time to fish it this year. Really looking forward to next year's BTC.
That was the best and biggest turney I have ever fished. I was proud of the way my team mates and south florida shark club rep. It was great to see all the sharkers and freinds I haven't seen in a long time and thats was the best part of the turny. Thanks for a great turny everyone it was awesome.
I'm proud of all of you guys who fished hard.. .congrats you all
This was one of the most brutal trips that I have ever made, treturous surf combined with blistering wind and pelting rain didnt keep us off the beach. Unfortunately we didnt land the monster but that doesnt stop us we continue to keep up our drive with the thought of what could be landed on our next trip out. For right now this is so long to the SFSC for the warm water sharking until the Big Hammer Challenge. I am going to fish closer to home until then for some Giant Bluefin and Great Whites!!!! A big thanks goes out to Will, Jonathan, Scott, Shannon and Jonathan for a great night out the last day. We will get King Kong next time.
Welcome aboard Tim and Scott!! Call me if you guys ever wanna fish 786 515 4773
We did face some really nasty conditions during this tournament but we stuck it out. Those were probably the most intense conditions I have ever fished. Rain, wind, rough seas and lack of sleep make for quite a challenge. Thanks to will, Tyler and Johnathan for having me on the team and it was good to meet and fish with Shannon and johnathan as well. Let's do it again sometime soon!!
Way to stick it out...hardcore...many sharkers waited to fish the "right conditions" or came up with plan b that lead to zero results....congrats
TEAM GETCHA GETCHA SHARKON
Congratulations Team Shark Fever. It looked and sounded like you guys put up with some nasty weather but stuck it out and prevailed.