Ft Lauderdale Trip

So my friend John and I just got back from a trip to Ft. Lauderdale where we were trying for our first respectable sharks. With both of us only having 2-3ft bonnet heads as our biggest sharks caught before this trip, we were gonna be happy with anything over 5ft.

We flew in last Wednesday night 3/28. It was already after 9 so we decided to just go down Anglins pier to just hang out. They had a big lady fish in the cooler the guy sold to us so that was a good start for bait. We got back to the house and because I had never kayaked before I decided to see how hard it was.. in the safety of a pool.. and to simulate waves I started drinking.

The next night after getting some bait during the day we got all setup. Everything went pretty smooth and was all setup by about 6:30. The gear I had with me was an Avet 50w on my new black and yellow custom Barrett rod, a penn 9/0, and my surf rod spinning setup.

Wasn't till about 9 the 9/0 goes off and it was finally happening.. Months of preparation and researching and learning and finally we had a fish on. My friend John reeled him in and there he was our first shark:

2 nights later we were back on the beach, this time the bait only sat for less than a half hour and I was actually casting my surf rod when my Avet started screaming, I was up an reeled in this guy:

Little later on my surf rod was getting some bites and ended up reeling in this:

We went on a charter the next day with my Pap and caught a few fish as well:

Ended up not catching any more sharks after that, a few solid bites and short runs but didnt land anything else.

So all in all I took 3 rods down there and caught 3 sharks, one on each rod all of which were released safely. We caught our first sharks all around 5-6ft which exceeded what we were aiming for so it was a successful trip for us. Next time we will go for bigger. Also the car situation didn't work out the way I had expected and a surprise visit form my grandparents kept us from driving to different spots while we were down there, thank you to those who reached out that wanted to meet up and gave some tips on some spots to try out. Although I didn't get to use them or go anywhere else I greatly appreciate it!