New Friends,New spots, and new chances at MONSTER SHARKS

One of the great benefits of this site has been all the new shark fishermen I get to meet and that extends to developing lasting friendships with good like minded people from near and far.Another benefit is planning trips to far away places to meet new people and fish for sharks ;so its a double benefit traveling and meeting other shark fishermen. Yesterday Chris Fronzek(Cfronzek) and I ventured to the Naples (florida)to meet and fish with west coast greats Doug Schallmoser(dougr81) and John Gibson (tarponJ).It's been a quite a few years since I walked on the Naples pier and it was exciting to fish near a place that had special significance to some of the old school sharkers in the SFSC like Jd Hammer,Rene de Dios and myself.


A view of the Naples piera s the sun sets. Naples pier is the oldest pier in all of Florida it was originally built in 1888

the History Plaque in front of the landmark fishing pier

some things never change and in these old Florida towns they seem to NEVER CHANGE for example the "No Shark Fishing"rule still in place after so many years ,,,,,when will they ever catch up to the times

We set in motion to meet at a local beach one hour before sunset but ofcourse as usual I was late in getting to the predetermined place but upon arrival we set up and had baits in the water within one hour.

Chris,Doug, and John anxiously await a bite and pose for a picture

Doug ,John and I pose next to Dougs huge Hobie fishing kayak all 140 lbs of it

In the winter in this area as in many areas of Florida the shark fishing is hit or miss and on this night it was mostly miss until Doug got the first solid strike of the night at around 2 am as he and john were getting ready to pack it in.

Doug gets a solid connection and is on tight with his Penn 12/0

Doug ,Chris and John pose with a solid 6 1/2 foot male bull shark the only prize on this night

Dehooking 101 -Chris does a masterful job retrieving the big circle hook from the corner of the shark's mouth

the low tide trough presandbar release ,,, ALWAYS EXCITING ON MOONLESS NIGHTS

NEW FRIENDS AND EXCITING ADVENTURES

This past summer we met and traveled to fish Bimini Bahamas for four days with Joey(smokinya)and Sonny Soule (sharkinsonny) who ltravelled all the way from Tennessee to participate in this great fishing adventure.During the 2011 BHC I had the great pleasure of meeting and hosting shark fishing exraordinaire Troy Coupel(Lasharkhunter) at my house.So the benefits of the site continue to increase mostly in developing new friendships but also in allowing us to protect and promote the sport of Land-based shark fishing and for that we are honored.

Last Saturday we met up with josh Jergenson ay Sebastian Inlet to try and tangle with a big INLET shark but the mullet run has ended and the fishing was not what we expected.PRESENT Were THE BIG WAVES and strong wind but absent were the big mullet schools and the hungry predators attacking from all sides.


the southh view from the south Sebastian Inlet jetty

The redfish,mackeral and bluefish were scarce but we pushed forward with our plan of fishing the slack tide
inside the Inlet as Josh had done a few weeks previously when he hooked a beast that was peeling line off the Avet 80.

Josh's and Jeff's Sebastian Inlet Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKULfR4RjOA

The fishing was slower then I had seen here in many many trips -suffice it to say that we saw one redfish caught the entire day mixed in with a handful of bbluefish that made a showing in the late afternoon.

the only redfish of the day a solid 50 incher

A plus of the day was the southern ray some nice man let us have for bait.

fresh and Slimy
After waiting most of the morning for the tide to slow down enough to very carefully launch the kayak into one of Florida's most dangerous Inlets we finally launched at around 2:30 pm
Our luck with the sharks was to parralel the regular fishing in other words it was bad not a single run and at the end of the day I lost my rig on bottom and Josh had his line run over by a large local charter vessel.My cousin Benny ,Josh and I finished the day as we have of late when fishing at Sebastian -we ate a very tasty dinner at Rossatti's Italian restaurant and headed south the 175 miles back to Miami.No fish but wonderful times with close friends and family,,,,,"It don't get better then that".

Josh bravely yaks out the 1/2 ray into the middle of a often treacherous stretch of water

a view of the north Sebastian Inlet jetty from the south side

following the kayak as Josh heads into the middle of the inlet

2011 will go down as one of our most productive years in the SFSC and not only for the shark fishing but for the strides we have made in new significanmt friendships and in helping to develop a more strong base of passionate and INVOLVED YOUNG SHARKERS.We only hope that every year will be as significant as 2011 was for us at the SOUTH FLORIDA SHARK CLUB .Our sincere goal has never been been to make money from our club or this site but instead has been to share the love that we have in our hearts for the sport of land-based shark fishing and the anglers involved in it.Good luck to all in 2012.