keys trip nurses and an epic 2 hour battle with a ray...lost

Not the greatest action, but a trip that will be remembered for sure. Didnt go to school on friday so we could get a head start on the long trip and get to long key in time for sunset. We left around 11:30 and with a ton of gear and 6 rays and we were determined to get a monster.

We got to the keys and made a quick stop to bud and marys to pick up some tube lures and to see if they had any carcusses left. No carcusses but one of the charter guys had a fresh jack that i immediately asked for. Well we obtained the jack and got the tubelures and made it over to long key just as the tide was shifting to our liking after we got our bait out caleb tore up the snapper (no pics). the runs were very infrequent and small or the sharks wouldnt commit. We rigged up for tarpon and cuda, had the sabiki rig out catching grunts for bait, shark rigs out and absolutely nothing, that night wasnt our night. Giving up wasnt apart of the plan, so we extended our stay for another night, seeing that the cuda, tarpon, rays, jewfish, and permit were everywhere in the water gave us hope. I rigged up for cuda with a tubelure on my calcutta and walked up and down the bridge for hours. Many would chase the lure and bail, but i managed to taunt one enough with the bright pink lure for it to nail it. He pulled drag and ran all over the place threatening to cut me off on a piling, so i locked up and we got him in the bridge net. fresh shark bait for the day!
After the cuda was landed i cut some yards off of my frayed up 40 lb wind-on leader off and re-rigged to get another cuda when i see a group of jewfish, one at least 250 lbs. I ran down the bridge and grabbed my 80w rigged with some jack from last night that wasnt the freshest, i ballooned it out right in front of him and he approached it immediately, he sat the with his mouth closed right on top of it but did not want it. He would swim away come back repeat the process of coming up to my bait and not touching it, which pissed me off thoroughly. The goliath left and we walked all over the bridge trying to catch fish. I looked over at scott and he was hooked up inbetween the bridges so i ran over to see what the comotion was about. he was hooked up to a big ol nurse shark on his tyrnos. It ran hard all over the bridge, Scott locks up and the nurse runs under the bridge and breaks him off.


After the the break off Caleb and I rig up some D.O.A. shrimp with light wire on our light rods and headed down to the docks, that Caleb discovered was loaded with small cuda while he was exploring. we got some little cuda for bait and walked back up the bridge. We see scott walking towards us with his rod that appears to be rigless. as hes rigging up a snagging rig he tells us there are some monster southern rays cruising all over the bridge and he hooked up and lost one. Caleb and Scott walk back down the bridge to snag some rays while i worked a lure in the bait schools. I look to my right and see Caleb running full speed down the bridge. I already knew whats up when i seen him running so i ran for the bridge net and bridge gaff, gave one to caleb and ran a very long distance over to scott. When we got there scott was hanging off of the side of the bridge with his rodtip down under pointed under the bridge. It was apparent that the ray had swam under the bridge, I ran over to the other side which was the side that the water was inbetween the two bridges and saw puffs of sand where the ray had swam which made a bit of a trail toward the piling. we all stood there thinking up a plan to land this fish, so Caleb thought to snag the line, loosen the drag, cut the line and splice the line back together. Luckily my calcutta rigged with the tubelure was only 100 yards down the bridge, I retrieved it and casted over the line that was exiting from under the bridge and toward the piling, i snagged it scott loosened drag and i brought up the line slowly, Caleb then grabbed it and made sure he had enough slack to tie a double uni back onto scotts rod. the splice was a success and scott added a little more pressure onto the ray, the ray seemed to be giving in but ran hard again through the two cylinder pilings and out the the other side about 50 yards to the next set of cylindrical pilings and through those pilings. So now we have no hope in catching this fish but we keep trying, i ran down to where the ray seemed to be buried in the sand and casted the tubelure over the braid, I caught it and brought it up but since scott was so for away we had caleb be the messenger to run down and let him know to loosen his drag so we could grab the line. Caleb grabs the line and wraps it around his hand and scott runs back toward us to splice the line once again. the splice worked and the fight continued. Now the ray was so buried in the sand it was very hard to move it. We had another plan to grab scotts tyrnos which had heavier 100 lb test braid on it and the reel the we have been fighting the ray on the whole time only had 50 lb power pro on it ( penn captiva and an ugly stick), and snag the ray again to bring it up quicker without risking losing it by putting too much pressure on the 50 lb test. I ran back down the bridge to our gear and tied on another snag rig onto scotts tyrnos, and had jarrod run back down the bridge to give it to them because i was pretty exhausted.

snagging the ray with the Tyrnos was much more difficult than expected. but little by little the captiva brought in the ray slowly. Then the ray took another run and was turned before going too far on the other side of the bridge. Caleb worked him in slowly until it was staight up and down, ass toward the sky. scott went to snag him once more and appeared to be hooked onto the ray, so Caleb put a little added pressure onto him because it seemed a major relief has been presented because scott was hooked onto the monster ray too, calebs line snaps and the ray swam away and we all look at scotts line which was never hooked onto the ray at all, but the concrete piling.
what a heartbreak, but thats fishing. Scotts line was still stuck so he broke it and it whiplashed back and snapped him right on his eyeball. ow. We get back to our gear and jarrod and I decide to head up to a store to pick up some more treble hooks, and water. when we get back we see scott hooked up on the 14.


and......... its a nurse
we decide to fish 7 mile because of the tide change. Jarrod, Scott's little brother Tyler, and I pack up while Scott and Caleb head over to the charter boats to pick up some bait. They head back with kingfish, almaco jack, and blackfin carcusses. So we roll out, pick up some wendys and arrive at 7 mile bridge. As we walk our stuff down the bridge we see a nice 70 lb southern cruising the grass flats so i grab my calcutta with the tubelure cast it to it and it swims right over the lure and i set the hook. The ray immediately strips 70 yards from my reel and darts under the bridge and im off immediately. Grab my stuff, set up, and drifted baits out. after about 45 minutes jarrods 12/0 runs and he sets up and hes on to another nurse shark.


he wrestles it a little bit then gets a good picture

then the tide switches and we head for home