It's been a while since I posted up, but the runoff has played havoc on the fishing conditions in and around Ft Myers over the past few years. I have my spot ans I stick to it mostly out of convenience. I venture off to Sanibel and Captiva from time to time - Blind Pass. My crew has had it's ups and downs the last year or so as well. Thus I have been doing a lot of solo sharking and going out with some green crew. We have caught dozens upon dozens of Black tips, but I don't post them up. Lemons as well. Sick of Lemons.
I had a kick in January. I set up a guy on his first shark, a 6'+ sandbar. He was so excited I thought he would pee himself. We brought her in and he has a nice story to tell.
The water looked shitty two nights ago, but we decided that it would be a nice way to spend the night if nothing else. I caught a few black tips early on, nothing special. We had two monster baits out right and left 4-500 yards. I won't say what we were using. Needless to say, they sat there all night. Going on a concept that I have always believed to be the gospel in my spot, I put out a chunk of mackerel 100 yards. We hadn't sat down for more than an hour when we got a good run on the up close bait, which was on a 9 Ought. Strong but dropped. I stood up to change the bait 10 mins later. As I was walking to the rod, she went off screaming. My buddy Jerry (Megalodon) picked up the rod and set the hook. If the bait had been any further out, we would have been dumped. I have half half 100 test and braid on that rod. We were down to 100 yards or less before we turned the fish. Jerry played the fish through many runs before we get her in close enough to see the cycle. Hammer - not as big as I've soon some of the east coast guys bringing in, but a damn good fish, especially in a 9Ought.
Fish finaly made it to shore. We were worried about the lower tide, but she didn't spit the hook. I grabbed the leader and tail and we had it up on the beach. We had the fish back in within a minute and with a little assistance, she swam off decently. Length 8' 10"
We are off Tuesday to get our Tiger. Only species we have not caught that is indiginous to SW Florida
Tight work. Looks like a blast on the 9/0!
Keep takin the new guys out and gettin them on fish. For some people it might be the fish of a life time!
Awesome Catch dude!! Congratulations.
SOUTH FLORIDA SHARK CLUB -President SFSC-Founding Member est 1983 SFSC-Website Administrator BIG HAMMER SHARK TOURNAMENT -Founder Rene Memorial Sharkathon -Founder NMFS Shark Tagger