SW Florida End of Year Report Including Tiger

Shark fishing in SW Florida has been great recently. Starting off I went out on 12/19 and my father joined me.

Sunset

Put out 3 rods and at 8:00pm the 12/0 went off and I picked it up. Before I had even set the hook the 14/0 went off and I told my father to pick it up. He has watched me for years and knew what to do. With a double header on a few minutes into the battle the 80w got hit also but it dropped it so I didn't bother with it. I got mine in and years of solo sharking experience kicked in and I was able to successfully measure and release a 4'9" blacktip.

4'9" blacktip

After releasing mine my father got his in and it ended up being a 6'2" sandbar.

6'2" sandbar

Then on 12/28 I went out again and my father joined me again (he's been coming out more often recently) and a guy Greg that lives on the island and gives me any trash fish (jacks, ladyfish, etc.) came out. I had great bait with 2 AJ carcasses, 4 big mangrove carcasses, 3 jacks, 2 sailcats, and a bluefish. Right after sunset the 80w went off and I brought in a 5'11" blacktip

Fighting the blacktip

5'11" blacktip

45 minutes later the 12/0 went off and I let Greg fight the shark. He did a great job and congrats to him for his second shark from the beach. While he was fighting his the 80w got hit and I told my father to get it and I would deal with Gregs shark when it got to the beach. So Greg got his in and it was a 5'3" blacktip that was tagged so that was cool since thats the second shark caught on one of my rods that was already tagged.

5'3" blacktip

My father brought his in and he got a 6'3" sandbar.

After redeploying the 80w got hit again and I brought in a 5'5" blacktip which was the 4th shark of the night.

5'5" blacktip

I then kayaked the 80w out again and was out of prime bait so I had on a big sailcat. About 20 mins later the 80w went off again! Dadgum that reel was lucky that night. The shark ran with it for a little bit then started chewing on it and then started moving again and right when I was about to set the hook the shark dropped the bait. A few minutes later the fish came back and I set the hook and brought in my first tiger ever. It was 7'3". I have been shark fishing for almost 7 years now and I am relieved I finally got one. Not a bad way to end 2013. Something interesting is after I pulled the hook out of the corner of the mouth on the tiger I realized that the #19 wire going from first hook to second hook on the rig had been bitten through. I noticed the bait had slid up the leader and had the second hook still in the bait. It wasnt kinked, twisted, or anything; just straight as a can be so I think the tiger bit through it when it dropped the bait. So thats interesting because tigers are usually associated with cutting cable not wire and this wasn't a big tiger by any means.

7'3" tiger

5 sharks in one night caught as a group is a first for me (previous record in one night was 3). Anybody that fishes the west coast of Florida (not the panhandle) knows that thats a great night and does not happen often and especially all the sharks were caught before 11pm.