Gulf then East Coast River Monster Hunting

Left out Sunday morning and drove down to the gulf. The area we had picked out had crazy hot water, warmer then anything I had ever felt in the ocean. I would have loved to took some readings in the surf, it was hottub hot! The surf was dead! We fished Sunday night and Monday night about 8hrs or so each night and not a click. The sharks must have been way out in deeper and cooler water along with everything else. Left the area Tuesday morning and headed to the east coast to a favorite area. I had a river monster on my mind! When we arrived we got a room, ate a good meal and looked at a few spots. We had some good baits but as we were setting up a nice big ray came swimming up within a few feet of us, that had to be a good sign I thought as I ran him through with the gig! It was big enough to make several big baits out of and they could not get any fresher then that. My confindence level really doubled as I yakked them out.

Early in the night we had a run, I hooked him up and realized it was not what I was hoping for but a decent shark anyways so I handed it off to Jeff. I knew it would be bigger then anything he had fought before and he had a blast bringing it in.

We had several bait mauled and a few clicks turned here and there for a couple hours but that was it for the night. I went ray hunting and scored a few more the next day and we set up at a different spot to try our luck. After we set up there was plenty of life in the water, lots of bait, and the ever present catfish! Nothing happened early on and into the night Wednesday night a change took place, even the catfish stopped biting! I suppose it had something to do with the hurricane coming changing the atmosphere but what ever it was it shut everything off. We headed toward home 700 miles away on Thursday morning.