Se7en Shark Nite(MARCH 2011)

This night was a blur for me, felt like the whole time I was either running a bait out, or fighting or releasing a shark so I will do the best I can to get the catches in chronological order. We get down to the beach and have some issues with the kayak cart, a wheel fell off. But we had 3 engineers in our 4 man group plus I stayed at a holiday inn express the night before so we were good got back on track and finished getting our stuff on the beach. Not long after that we had 4 shark rods out. Pretty soon after sundown comes the first run of the nite on my 12/0, shark dropped the bait but it came back soon after and scooped the bait, I put the reel in freespool with the ratchet still on and locked the star drag while I let him eat, threw the reel in gear and did the runnin’ man on his ass then set up violently 5-6 times while I heard Doug Brett and Kevin laughin at me, I probably looked like I was tryin’ to murder somethin’, but fish on.

As I’m fighting my shark my lil tld 25 went off so the guys had Brett take it, his first time out shark fishing and he was already hooked up to a nice fish. I kept yellin’ like an idiot for them to turn the ratchet off the tld 25 while Brett was crankin’ it sounded like a damn TV show over there. I beached my shark a 6’1” spinner and rather than waiting for Brett to get his shark on the beach for a double header pic we sent the spinner back out in good condition with a tag. Soon after Brett landed a nice 7’7” lemon, and acted like it was no big deal but I was quite happy for him..the first shark of his career and he did a nice job fighting him..tagged and released. Not many people I know can say their first shark from land was over 7 and a half and be truthful about it. That beats my first ever from land by about 3 feet.

Soon after that as I was trying to get the slinky out of my malin wire and re-bait my rods Doug’s 9/0 got a run and I was further down but it looked like Kevin was hooked up on it for a few minutes but the fish ended up parting the hook on him. Then Doug’s 12/0 goes off we got him doin’ the runnin’ man these days and he is hooked up to a strong heavy fish. I stopped what I was doing to watch the fight the rod had a good bend in it and I was anxious to see what he had hooked into. He made short work of a very nice healthy 7’4” bull, heaviest fish of the night and 3rd shark thus far. Soon after that we get all the rods back out and not long after I got to the beach from runnin’ out the TLD 25 my 12/0 goes off again I feed him good then do the runnin’ man and get turned around like a damn whirlybird, it’s a fish with a lil more weight. Then the TLD 25 went off again as I was fighting my shark and Brett is hooked up again. I got my shark to the beach a thick 7’10” lemon, and soon after Brett gets his 2nd lemon of the night this one a nice 7’4”..sharks 4 and 5 for the evening.

Wish we could have gotten double header pics but the fish's health comes first especially protected species. I ran the 12/0 and tld 25 back out again not long after I return to shore I get a run on the 12/0 was hooked up to a smaller shark for a minute then it spit the hook. Then the tld 25 went off again and as Brett runs over to the rod me being the clown I am I give him a hard time and tell him “you gotta run that out there if you wanna fight it,” haha..anyways he asks me if its time to stick him I tell him to wait just a lil longer then he puts the lever drag in strike and he’s hooked up to his 3rd shark of the night. Brett was wearing me out he kept catching sharks right after I'd take his bait out. He quickly subdued the 5’10” bull he had hooked, got him some pics with his 3rd shark of the night and the 6th total for our group. Then my 12/0 goes off again I hit him with the runnin man and this fish was fighting pretty decent..the fish thought he was a 7 and a half to 8 ft class bull but was a slim 6’5” bull 7th shark of the night for the group. At this point we are low on bait and my arms and back are tired from paddling bait out into the wind and rough surf and we’re running low on bait so now we’re down to 2 shark rods. Last time out it was Doug’s 12/0 that was getting all the attention from the sharks but now the action died down so we called it a night, a 7 shark night. Great fishin’ with all you guys let me know when you’re ready to do it again cuz I got a fever and the only prescription is more shark.

Roll call...

6'1 spinner

Brett's 7'7 lemon

Doug's 7'4 bull

7'10 lemon

Brett and his 7'4 lemon

Brett with his 5'10 bull..come on man you're slippin' already!!

numero siete, 6'5 bull

A few sharks from last time out...

a nice blacktip/spinner whatever you wanna call it..6'1" got hung up on some structure out past the sandbars so doug went out in the yak to get him..first time I've seen someone fishin' the 12/0 in a kayak.

thanks for letti'n me take this run..I owe you a 6'9" bull

I believe this bull was 6'0??