THIS IS LAKEWORTH PIER, THIS IS WHERE I GOT MY 1ST TIGER!!!!

The day was Saturday, January 29th; we got to the pier at about 10 or 11 in the morning, my buddy Frank had a nice cobia in the cooler, sure enough, about 15 people were on the end with cobia jigs. I figured, it’s a little too crowded right now, so I went down to the surf to see what I could catch. In the mean time, Jd and Eddy were BSing and looking for cobias, without me knowing, Eddy or somebody brought an old photo album full of pics from the original pier. I was studying the pilings hard; I kept seeing big sheepies, so I grabbed my spinner and a weighted treble given to me by Jd Fagan, sure enough after missing about 2 or 3, I finally snagged one and he wrapped me around the piling about 3 times, but I pulled him out anyways. I was happy with this fish alone. Jd flopped the first bluefish of the day, I ran it down to the duely as fast as I could, but he died so he made cooler space.

Around 4pm, I saw some kids down in the surf (Frank, 21, and some others) they were hooking into a fat spinner shark, so I took my 9/0 down with a 2lb bluefish head, no hits and I was enjoying a banana walnut muffin. But I coulda sworn someone was callin me, then someone walked down and told me Jd and Eddy were screamin for me. I ran down as quick as I could with my snagging rod, that was a mistake, Eddy told me a hammer was there circling baits. I did a full speed run for my 9/0 and a full speed run back, the full length of the pier. It was too late, Eddy hooked him hard on 21’s 6/0 and it frayed off. But Jd said throw that chunk in and within 20 minutes, he was back, and he grabbed the freshest bait; my bluefish head. I let him run but he didn’t want to run, instead he swam in for the pier, I reeled in fast, held the spool and hit him until my arms were tired. The fish was on. Big ol’ hammer (or at least that’s what we thought he was.

It was getting dark, getting cold, he had been going back and forth around the end of the pier for the past 30 minutes, at one point he finally just headed due east and stripped about 200 yards off me, at that point I was a little bit worried, but after another 45 minutes, I had the beast straight up and down. I said hey, that’s no hammer, I thought it was the biggest bull shark in the world, but then he turned sideways, I saw his head, I saw his tail, I saw his stripes, the tiger had been subdued!

Now today is Sunday, I am here writing this post, Jd is heading back to the pier for smoked sailfish and in hopes of catching something before January ends.

The pics of the old pier make me freak...

Boat captains came out for adventure

Front row parking

Benny’s, years of excellent food, at a price

Look at that wave!

I cant explain this pic

Can somebody please tell me what type of shark this is: duskey, thresher, mako, great white?

Ancient cars

Do you have the captain in you?

The captain was good

My Golly this picture is old

The pier

The captain and his mates, and DOES ANYONE KNOW IF THAT’S HERB GOODMAN ON THE LEFT?

The pier was a little too short

The stripes of a tiger never wash away

What a captain he was!

Now for a more modern time.

Start the day with a massive ship

Sea cows in the surf, tricking Eddy’s eyes

If there was a category for snagging fish, I would definitely be a challenger!

Almost the full length of the inner cooler!

As the sun fell, the action rose.

The hook up

Thing dragged me all the way around to the other side

He’s still going

Now I’m worried

Too close to the piling!

That’s better

Finally got him still

The beast

Look at that blunt nose

Big boy shark, my dream!!!

And this is my favorite picture, from head to tail 100% tiger 9 foot 7 inches

Penn senators, reliable reels!

The bimini twist, completely battered by the tiger, but still in full function!

The End