Pensacola report-sandbars-- my introduction to SFSC site

Hi to all the guys and ladies at South FLA shark Club website. I want to introduce myself – my friends call me Sharkin Sonny. I want to thank Willam for being gracious enough to let me join your group of sharkers. I’ve been lurking on your website for quite a while and every body seems to be really good people that have sharking running through their blood. This will be my 4th season of hard core sharking. The last couple of years I have sharked up and down the panhandle from Pensacola to st George island

This past weekend Firedawg (Bill) and Smokinya (Joey) got together down in Pensacola to start the new year off.

I left Memphis late Wednesday-it’s a long 500 mile trip-- I ended up getting into Pensacola before day light Thursday. As soon as I came over the bridge the first Marina had some lights on-- one of the captains Rusty Smith told me he was going to be running charters Thursday and I would be able to get some fish heads and skeletons when they got back in that afternoon. Hot Damn! Hadn’t been in Pensacola 10 minutes and already had bait for the day. Rusty is a great guy and if you need some bait in the Pensacola area, he can help you out--850-292-9613

The early morning was glorious---great to be back in fla

Later that morning I met up with Bill and we made our way over to our fishing spot. We were thinking bulls in the bays if you know what I mean

Throughout the course of the afternoon, we set up camp, deployed baits and talked about all the good times we’d had in the past. Bill was also able to get some bait from some of his local friends, so we were loaded. When I got back from the charter boat, I had a cooler full of heads.


I pulled out one of the tricks I use when I have a bunch of smaller heads. I took one of my big J hooks, and treaded 4 or 5 heads on to it. With all the heads together, it made a decent size bait. By 5pm we had sheep, Bonita, snapper heads and mullet all deployed.

At the center of our spread we were running out a huge sheep head. We had been living off peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I decided if peanut butter was good enough for us it was good enough for the sharks and I spread peanut butter all over the sheep head. At this point we sat back took in the setting sun- popped a top and made a salute to the sharking gods with mr. Crown Royal.

Just before dark my lucky 12 starts pulling off drag. I was really pumped this being the first shark hook up of the year. After a stout battle, I pulled in a 6ft 8in sandbar. These sharks are fat and just full of fight This was a new species of shark for me. It made the trip all worth while. NOTE we had 7 baits out with mastad 20/0 circles, eagle claw 20/0 circles, and a 24/0 charlie brown circle and what hook gets the job done - the 18/0 mustad J hook—I have been told and I I believe it generally the smaller hooks are a better way to go but who was the winner tonight----mr 18/0 J




A little bit later Joey showed up and we were ready for more action. WE did have a couple of more runs that night but no hookups.

The next morning at 5AM before sunlight the sheep head with peanut butter bait that was on my new 14(thanks googan)starts screaming. Joey yelled to me get up- so from a deep sleep we managed to get Joey strapped in the fighting harness. After about a minute and a half of the line being steadily pulled out, Joey turns the star and tightens the drag way up. The pole bent over double and we knew we had a big fish. For about 30 seconds, Joey had his hands full, and then the line just went limp. Joey thought it was the biggest he had ever hooked up with—what an exciting way to start your day-

--we thought about the miss long and hard and we feel like we still did not wait long enough before the drag was tightened up—how long to wait, that’s been the question of our trip---live and learn.

Friday, was a beautiful day and we fished hard only to have a couple of missed hook ups, probably by smaller sharks. Late that afternoon, again we had our baits fully deployed. Joey the= ray spearing king =had been out and got some stingray, so we had a complete assortment of 5 different baits out. Bill keep saying this was going happening really soon ----how did he know



Again, right before dark Bills 14 gets slammed. Bill is a big guy and He struggled but finally landed a fat 7ft 1in sandbar. That was a personal best sandbar for him and he was elated. Sharking makes him so happy and I won’t forget the smile on his face after his shark was let go

What a great trip this turned out to be. --- both Bill and Joey are funny guys --they are such nice guys and hard core sharkers which make our trips so much fun—isn’t that what its all about—we have come a long way the last couple of years and we think this is the year to step our game up –we have learned a lot and watching the reports SFSC are putting out have us pumped–we have several trips planned and really do not have any excuses left—its time to let the good times roll



Saturday we changed locations and started the process all over again—it was just a perfect day except we did not catch anything. oh well that’s sharking

William if everyone was as nice as you have been to me this would be a better world

Thanks for reading and letting us be part of your world

Bill –joey—and sharkin sonny