East Coast Team Pork Rind Trip:

So yeah, this trip consisted of a single minded bunch of Yankees, leaving home from 3 different rural locations. Joel, his dad Mike, his brother Joseph and our buddy Blaine embarked from WV. Scott is from rural Pa. and I live in Southeast Ohio. We have all fished together before and all come from places where the people have fewer teeth than they do in Florida. None of us had sharked Fla. Before.

Many thanks to Mike for providing the two sound vehicles we made the voyage in. The guys met me around 10 pm at a walmart parking lot in Va.. They seemed happy to see the Saturn battle wagon again, I brought my usual enthusiasm. We made Florida’s East Coast by late Sat. morning and began scouting and hunting bait. As it turned out we would spend a lot of time doing both throughout this trip. Bait for the trip ended up being a real challenge. We fished fairly hard in the surf, walked miles in the sound gigging the few rays we came across and relied on the kindness of strangers. One of these strangers, RonG, became a friend. Ron fished with us a couple times and was very generous, sharing some frozen bonita at times when our stock of bait ran low, Thanks Ron!!!!! Will was also very helpful to us, providing consistent encouragement and guidance, thanks Will, you tha man!!!
Our first spot looked promising and provided an education in the form of several cut off runs and a rather grumpy police officer! It seems we had unwittingly crossed a county line and missed a “park closes at sunset” sign. We were run off the beach at a rapid pace amid swarms of noseeums and threat of arrest, bummer. This second night would be the only one all of us would spend at the hotel. We left the beach with our gear piled haphazardly in the truck, too late to make another camp.
That first spot did yield the freakishly large ray which Scott landed handily on his 12/0. I have seen some monster rays at Hatty and in SC but this thing took the cake! It was not only 9’ long, but also a solid 12 “ thick. When this thing sucked itself to the sand in the wash it sounded like the air brakes on an old bus! It also took three grown men to pry it up for release. We are all about running the big baits but this ray demanded some respect. Also, the beach was busy and we did not want to bring negative attention by staging a large scale slaughter scene!!!



We found a new spot in the am and continued our quest for bait. We caught some blues in the surf most days and approached the challenge of bait like a team. Those of us with fairly good hygiene and social skills would hit the marinas to beg scraps. The smelly ones among us, eager to impale something, walked miles in the flats of the sound gigging the few rays we came across. Bait was a challenge on this trip. With the help of RonG and a multi-pronged approach we kept ourselves fishing. Our new spot was a mixed bag. We got into some BTs early on but also had some very heavy runs which were cut off very quickly on reef or structure.
Joel’s first, under the mark:


One of our nicer baits, begged at the marina:

Joseph tried to help out with the bait gathering and came was rewarded handsomely with this rare catch which became a mascot/team flag for the trip. I swear I think he kept it!




Scott, Blaine and I stayed up really late our first night at the new spot. Blaine had just dozed off when Scott heard my 80W go off first and said “there you go”. It felt really good to be hooked up again as I had not caught a decent fish since October. Scott and Blaine really lucked out in that their first experience with a lemon was an 8,8 one that was winched in with an 80W in about 6 minutes. This fellow was very green and def. made that known to them. He swam off just fine.



We continued to have the occasional really heavy run which would get cut off in short order. Scott did keep one heavy fish on for several mins. On his 9/0 prior to cut off. He described a lot of head shake and was happy to experience it. We are all in agreement that there must be better beaches to fish than the one we spent our last 4 days on. All of the cut offs were frustrating and definitely got the wheels turning for us. We started using some floats on our leaders late in the trip.


We also continued to catch a mix of nurse sharks and BTs. Scott got a nice nurse and a PB at 7,7 while Blaine and I were off on one of the bait treks. I am told this one saved all it’s energy by sliding in then pitching a fit on the sand. In any case, it was great to see Scott get on some fish. Scott is a great friend and fishing buddy, he has put his time in.




It was really great to fish with Blaine again, he has been overseas most of the past year and missed a number of our trips last year. He absolutely owned a nice 8’ nurse on the 16/0!!!!

We thought, why not a money shot of a nurse shark? Ugly sharks need luvin too, right!?

Mike, Joel’s Dad, is a great guy to fish with. He fished the surf hard and put a lot of bait in the cooler for us. He also hooked up a nice BT on his new mondo spinning outfit. Mike was not fishing the tourney but it was great to fish together again. Thanks again for the long range vehicles, coffee and chicken Mike, you rock!!!!!



Joel did it this trip, he caught the fish we have been looking for and talking about forever. It was after 10:00 on our last night. It was a long, fast, really powerful run followed by, well, I’m gonna count on Joel to tell the story. Suffice it to say, there were many runs, we saw the braid, just like we knew we would. Joel did what we had known would need to be done at that spot, he put the heat to that fish really hard and put it on the beach in 20 to 25 mins at my best guess. The fight was harried and there is much to tell. Joel will do that. The fish stopped coming after going North and South. We panned light down the beach and saw a beautiful enormous dorsal vertical in the wash. It was amazing!!!



Florida was amazing and we loved it. I will be back there in just over two weeks, can’t wait.
Chris