The water has warmed up quick this year, and with it the sharks have moved in. After 2 weeks of temps in the high 70s we began to see pics of alot of sharks being caught in Jacksonville, and after seeing those we decided it was time to start fishing a little harder. We left saturday morning and headed down to the dina pier. We got our first baits out around 7:45 am. Fresh cownose on one rod and older rays on the other two. Two hours later the 10/0 goes on a little roll and ging is hooked up. Of course the fresh bait got hit first. After a quick fight he gets the sandbar up to the pier, but unlike most sharks we catch off the pier this one decided to go straight underneath when the others usually swim away from it. Its a good thing we had a long leader and the rod was hosed up otherwise we wouldn't have been able to pull him out from the pilings. Walked him down, popped out the hook, measured him, and took a pic before the release.
6'3"
A little while later we reel up and reyak with new baits. the 10 had the back half of a bonito, my 12 had the head half, and bennetts 12 had another older ray. Again Ging's 10 gets wacked. Another sandbar. This one swam straight under too, but we winched him out easily. little bit smaller on this one.
5'10"
Later that day we caught a bonnet head and decided to keep him for bait. We couldnt catch any rays to save our lives it was pitiful. We reyakked right before dark.
Ging sent out the back end of the bonnet and got hit within 5 minutes, but since he yakked that set of baits he was up at the car getting a change of clothes. When the rod went off I told Bennett to hit him because he was due for another shark after having tough luck in Palm. A few minutes later we had this 6'11" lemon on the sand. I was surprised to be catching a lemon in such cold water(64) but it was a nice surprise.
After that my 12 with the front half of the bonnet got hit, and hit again, and again, but whatever it was wouldnt seem to eat it. After 3 different hits on the bait i figured it was gone so we began to reel in. We were going to spend the night, but a 100% chance of rain and no bait made us rethink our decision. When i got my bait in it was just mangled.
The next day i hit the beach up in GA for the first time this year. I had out half a bonito and Eckerd had out one as well. A few hours later i went to check my 12 and my line was slack on the beach, something had cut me off and i lost 40 ish yards... looks like i have to respool again before the Keys trip. Later Eckerd reeled in his bait untouched.
About 2 hours ago I got pics from kyle and konrad who were fishing the pier. Earlier this week 5 sandbars and 2 sandtigers had been caught. Konrad got this big 8'4" sandtiger on a squall 30. They used a massive pier net built for sharks to get it up onto the pier. tagged it and sent it back.
Hope to go back to Dina this weekend if the weather cooperates. Time to start fishing, spring is upon us.
"It's all about the presentation"
Tight Work. Great Report. I want to get one of those sand tigers one day!
Here fishy fishy fishy.....
Catch a fish or catch a buzz!