Dream Fishing Vacation for Family with Special Needs Son

Its been a while since I posted a report and it felt good to hit the sand again after not having shark fished since July. I decided to finally finish the boat I have been building for the past 6 years which meant putting up the shark rods for a while. I dumped thousands of dollars into a new motor and materials for the boat, rebuilt a trailer to fit the boat, and put hundreds of hours of labor into almost finishing it since july. Somehow I was able to do all this on top of hog hunting 2-3 nights a week, and full time college which I am graduating with my bachelors on saturday. All thats left on the boat is inside paint, hatch covers and building a livewell.

But besides that my father gave his coworker a 5 day dream vacation at our rental house on Don Pedro Island in Florida. While they were staying at the rental house we have been living next door at the house my father and I are remodeling so this gave us the opportunity to take them fishing every day. The family consists of Jim (the father), the wife, and son Mike who is severly autistic. They had access to fish the beach, our 150 ft dock, take the golf cart around the island, swim in the pool, and relax from a normal life that is never easy when you have a special needs child. Each evening for an hour before sunset we would take them trout fishing in the boat and we had some great times with them. Even though Mike's brain does not function like ours does, Mike is the fastest learner I have ever seen and was casting out his own bait, could tell when to set the hook, and learned how to pop the cork to attract the trout. All we had to do was put a shrimp on his hook and take the fish off. Before this trip the biggest fish he had ever caught was a brim so that was an easy record to beat between the trout, ladyfish, and jacks.

I told them I was going shark fishing one night and that they should come out (I didn't mention anything to anybody that I wanted to let them catch the sharks). My father was with me and I put out 4 rods with stingray, jacks, and ladyfish. While setting up Mike and his father showed up and we kept Mike busy by catching whiting in the surf while I hoped for a reel to scream. Sure enough before sunset the 12/0 went off and there was a spinner shark putting on a show jumping with my bait in its mouth. I set the hook and I said, "Hey Mike you wanna catch a shark?" He came over and after a quick demonstration of how to sit in the sand, keep pressure, pump up reel down, I passed the rod over to him and he did great. The only thing we had to help him on was reeling the line on evenly. Mike made short work of the spinner, we got it on the beach and it taped out to 5'7". The official biggest fish this young man has ever caught and something he will never forget.

Mike fighting the shark

Mike with his 5'7" spinner. Way to go!

Not long later the 14/0 started clicking really slow and after about 15 mins it finally ate the bait and I knew before setting the hook that this would be a nurse. I called Jim over and said, "it's your turn." Jim was a natural and did a perfect job of bringing in the shark which ended up being a 7'4" nurse shark. Who cares if its a gummy? Jim just caught the biggest fish of his life (his previous biggest was a 5lb bass). Awesome job Jim.

Jim fighting the nurse on the 14/0.

Jim and his 7'4" nurse.

Somewhere during the evening a guy that lives on the island Greg showed up and we were talking about fishing and what not the whole time. Around 8:00pm the lucky 12/0 went off again and I set the hook and called Greg over to come fight his first shark off the beach. So Greg after watching 2 other sharks reeled in knew how to fight it and likewise did a fantastic job fighting this shark. He got it in and it taped out to be a 6'7" sandbar shark. That ended up being the biggest fish Greg has ever caught also.

Greg with his 6'7" sandbar.

I had a couple more hits that night with one really good one that was taking drag on the orange 80w but hung me on a crab trap 300yds offshore and came off. Praise god that we got 3 sharks within 3 hours which doesn't happen often on Don Pedro which allowed Mike, Jim, and Greg all to catch a shark before their bedtime. All of us had a great time and 3 people who had never seen a shark that close caught the fish of their dreams and will never forget it. I am glad my father gave the opportunity to Jim and his family and I am especially glad that I got to be apart of this amazing experience they will never forget. Mike is an amazing young man and although his mind may not operate on the level that ours does he has a heart of gold and great loving parents. God has given me a great life for being just 20 years old and I thank him every day for allowing me to pour out the blessing he puts in my life back into other peoples lives.

Here is a 7'10" bull shark I got on another night on the orange 80w