Well we are back from long days of fishing in the Keys. We are happy to report that we caught two sharks and a ray. Dominique first caught herself a nice lemon shark. We were fishing off of the Seven Mile bridge and a guy next to us caught an eel that we quickly made into shark bait. We floated out the eel on the incoming tide to about 200 yards out. After a bit of waiting, her reel started empty out. She was able to get the shark to the bridge but it took the both of us to get the shark out of the water. Finally her Penn reel got broken in properly.
Not to be outdone, my Daiwa had a mullet for shark bait that attracted a few birds. I actually took the head of a parrot fish and put it out on my Ugly Stick and left it out there and almost forgot about it. Next thing I hear, my reel is just spinning out of control. I fight what I first thought was a snapper and soon realized that it was a nurse shark. I had her hooked on 20 lb. test with a circle hook stuck in her. I was able to get her pulled up to the bridge before the line finally had enough and snapped. She looked to be about 6 to 7 foot long and she just had enough playing with me and took my hook with her.
We stayed all Saturday on the Seven Mile. At night we put the same eel that caught Dominique's lemon shark and put it out again but this time in the outgoing tide. Her reel started spinning so hard I thought that she got caught by a boat. After some fighting, I realized it was some kind of fish. I thought that it was a shark for a little bit. We got the catch up to the bridge and soon realized that it was a ray. That beast had to have been at least 6 foot from wing tip to wing tip. We tried to pull her eel out of her mouth and she seemed to weigh a ton. We finally yanked the bait out of her mouth and she swam away.
We went out fishing again on Sunday but did not catch much just a bunch of bait fish. We have attached a picture of the lemon shark.
I DON;T KNOW HOW YOU KNEW TO USE EEL BUT A EXCELLENT BAIT FOR SHARKS. NICE FISH AND GOOD PICS. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.
Tha would be from me JD.None the less great job on the first of many sharks.You used what you learned on friday well and did great for a new commer.Cant wait to see more reports from you guys.
we can give nick the credit for clueing us in on the eel.it was a very good tip.
Shane,
Nice work on the sharks man. Let me know when your going to be in Pulaski and we will have to meet up down there and get some catfishing in or something. NIce to meet you this weekend a nice work.
Keep it up,
Blake
TEAM APEX
ok blake,it was a pleasure fishing with you friday.i amon my way to get a kayak.i need the practice lol.
Way to go Shane and Dominque it looks like Nick and team Apex taught you some of the old shark club bridge tricks.Great to see new faces and good people like you guys taking a liking to land based shark fishing .We are more then happy to help all interested parties in getting started.Sorry i did not make it this weekend i went to Tampa to buy a !988 32 foot RV and got back late Friday night after a 4 hour drive.The RV will now used for shark club events like the Rene Memorial and the Big Hammer Challenge Shark tournament and other trips to explore new shark fishing grounds.Hope to meet you guys soon.
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
Just make sure that you get on the kayak past the breakers if its rough. And also make sure to hit the waves head on and not from the side, thats what has worked for me.
TEAM APEX