Manasota Beach report with some new friends from Clearwater.

jwidmann · 2011-11-19T16:32:26Z

Disclaimer: some of this information may be a little off, so I invite anybody that was there last night to correct me. A little after sundown, my buddies and forum members DanTheMan and Islandboyalec met us in the parking lot with Dan's friends from up north, SFSC member Stellarol and his friend Brandon. After about a half hour of admiring the beautiful Everols they intended on fishing, and talking about gear, we set up the PVC rod spread from south to north: An Avet MXL rigged with some 80lb braid Avet TRX 50W filled to the brim with yellow 200lb braid on the 585 Everol 9/0 rigged with a salad bar of braid, optimizing the best of distance AND strength My 14/0 Alec's new Avet 30W Everol 12/0 rigged with a bunch of braid Dan's 80w, spooled with like 1500yards of 200lb spectra and topshotted with 400lb black mono (we'll talk later about this..) Everol 4/0 The baits on the rods ranged from smelly oversized horse mullet, a sheepshead, black drum, one or two of the 150lb rays that Dan brought with him, to 'marshmellows' cut out of those rays. So we spent about an hour dicking around, rigging, talking shit, sharing stories of past fishing trips, whatever, I'll have to add, Alec has to be the most determined person to ever fish with. This will come into play shortly... We get a couple short runs, cutoffs, most certainly blacktips conspiring against our main goal. About halfway through the trip, an older drunk woman pulls up, and immediately started talking to us. We'll call her Glory-Hole-Cindy. Don't ask. Actually, yes, please ask. ... The 14/0 finally goes off, slowly. As I run to the rod, I'm unsure as to if it's a small shark trying to drag around the cinderblock breakaway I used, a small, daring jewfish trying to eat the cinderblock in lieu of the bait, or a large shark, unaware that there's anything evil in this world. I start reeling, and figure it's a pup shark. By the time the 'pup shark' hit the trough, he realized that something was up and started tailwalking. "IT'S A SPINNER!" So it ran around the trough a little bit, jumping, and Stellarol pointed out something that I had thought for a split second: It was shiny. ... "TAAARRRPOOOONNN" All hell breaks loose as I attempt to crank this sonovabitch onto the shore and make quick work of him, Dan grabs his tag for the ready. Alec, full of adrenaline, piss, and vinegar jumps on the oversized greenback to show his excitement and to drag it to shore. He started screaming, and non of us really knew what was going on until he showed us his arm: I, personally, would have been a little more hesitant, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. But he calmly said "Take a picture first, then we'll remove the hook." Glory-Hole-Cindy took the picture, and proceeded to yell about a "poor, bloody, upset, sad fish". So, we released the fish, painlessly, back into the water... ...into four pieces. I'm sure some of you know the story, but to save Dan the embarassment, I'll let him tell you if he wants. So we joked with him, if he wanted to take home a chunk of the Tarpon for the grill. You know the old joke: How to cook a tarpon: Ready grill. Butterfly and gut tarpon, season the insides, place a 2x4, and close the tarpon up. Cook thoroughly on both sides, 30 mins at about 350 degrees F. Remove 2x4. Discard Tarpon. Eat 2x4. Cindy took care of Alec's fleshwound, and Alec paddled the baits back out. He freaking got back in the kayak, and paddled another combined mile and a half getting the baits back out. The kid's a freaking trooper. Sometimes, you've gotta fuel yourselves with a little Jager, and that's exactly what we did. After this, we sat anxiously for another fifteen minutes, then dan's 80w goes off. "Finally!" he yelled. However, whatever ate the head of the Tarpon was extremely lazy. "Damn Tiger sharks" somebody said. He throws the 80W into first gear and cranks in this beast: Insert Marvin Gaye music here. Oh yeah, we totally took that picture. And there were two of them, or so the screaming had led him to believe haha. We obviously didn't have a camera ready to take a picture of the oh-so-glorious nurse shark, and Alec was the only one with any energy left to get in the water and ensure the release of the nurse shark. Somewhere in between making sure Alec's arm was fine, taking about a half-dozen shots, and meandering around the beach touching things and tripping over stuff, Glory-Hole-Cindy had gotten in her car and left. I sure hope she made it home safely. After the nurse shark was landed, we sat for about another hour, patiently watching Stellarol's Everol (I like that haha) and my 14/0, we packed up the stuff and bid a safe trip to our friends from Clearwater. There's more to this story, and I'll edit it once I get more information, but I'm exhausted, and DanTheMan, Alec, and I are about to head out to another local beach with my buddy Bobby to make more fishing stories to share.

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islandboyalec

(@islandboyalec)

New Member Registered

Loved the story full of youthful wild times ,wild fish,wild beach going babes and a horny nurse too--HUH........Stuff of legends right there

ps,,,,,, In the month of May that bait would of got SLAMMED by a behemoth hammer and any of those reels with the exception of the Everol or possibly the 14/0 would of been completely toasted