Post you best fishing stories Non-fiction only!

i have never seen it done under a bridge or pier but i have seen it done around pilings of the pier here at sharkys.

THATS A CLASSIC STORY BRO.........WISH I SO LIVED IN THOES DAYS!!!!!!!!!THAT WAS MY TIME I THINK....... "GREAT ASS STORY"

This is how I got started land based shark fishing. It was just a couple years ago, but I had been fishing since I was about 4 maybe. This day would change how I fish forever. I had always seen those cheesy tv shows with the rich guys in boats catching big fish with the fancy gear and I was put under the impression you needed all that nonsense, a boat, money, and fancy gear to get big fish. I am thankful I learned otherwise and thankful for this day. It was the end of July 2009 and this girl I was going out with at the time was telling me about her roommate's boyfriend's recent catch..a tarpon est. at 110 lbs, I was like "that's cool where did he get it?" skeptical about it the whole time. When she told me he got it at this beach we liked to go to where we used to watch sunsets and see the tarpon rolling off the beach occasionally I asked "what kind of boat does he have?'' She said he caught it from shore. I went along with it but thinking in my mind it was BS. A couple days later my ex-chick's roommate invited me down to the beach to fish with her and her boyfriend, and I met them there a couple hours before sunset. As I was walking down the beach about 100 yards down I see a kid standing on the beach with his rod bent in half then suddenly a tarpon over 6' came flying out of the water. I was in shock..and I didn't think it was bs anymore. As I got down there with my wally world special spin combo and busted ol' penn 209 w/ 30# mono on a garage sale bought rod I watched in astonishment. I was like how the hell did they pull that off? Then my ex-lady's roommate's boyfriend introduced himself to me while his brother got the big tarpon to shore and explained "Pretty good action today..I gotta get my line back out there, you should get your line out soon too," as he put on a pair of scuba fins and cut a catfish in half and rigged it up to a 9/0 circle hook. He then proceeded to swim the bait out 150 yards. I threw my cast net over a school of pilchards, rigged one up to a spinning rod and soon caught a catfish. I cut the head off, rigged the tail up to my penn 209 then off I went on my first bait deployment..swimming out a catfish tail dragging about 20 ft of leader behind me. I swear not 2 minutes after I got back to the beach the penn 209 started SCREAMING..I grab my rod count to 5 then apply the drag..a 6' tarpon blasts out of the water and I was in a euphoric state. That moment is permanently stuck in my mind. It ended up spitting the hook, but that day I became hooked. My then girlfriend said she never saw me smile like that before, and this is what led me to land based shark fishing as I soon learned a shark is more likely to get to your bait first. I still use many of the techniques I saw that day, I thought those guys were crazy. Now they think I'm crazy when I hit the beach with my 12/0 and they see me rigging up a 20 lb stingray or a 2 and a half foot blacktip for bait. Those guys don't get to fish much these days and never really thought about targeting any shark over 4-5 ft but I hope that some day I can get them into targeting bigger sharks to repay them for what they did for me that day.

CLASSIC FLORIDA LAND-BASED FISHING STORY John,thanks.Fishing Florida's beaches can be as productive as fishing offshore and you never know what monster fish will be biting next.Hope we can continue fishing the beaches without the harassment of the condo owners who think they own the beach and the local goverments who don't make beach access parking a priority.Big money vs the locals trying to do what we have been doing for decades (simply fishing a beach)....Thanks again John for a CLASSIC STORY.

It was when i got my first hammer .. when me and my brother stared to shark fish we would swim are baits out in the day time and walk theme out as far as we can when it got dark ... not know what we where getting in to .... every on use to tell us that we where crazy for swimming are baits out there .that one day a shark was going to attack us .. so one day i came up on 2 surfboards and we stared to us theme .. that lasted about 2days that was not for us ..... we where still swimming are baits out .....we got an Inflatable Rafts from Walmart and we where using that to take out are baits ... that's when the shit hit the fan ... i just got my first 12/0... we where set .. so that's what we had in mine ... one day after work i call my cozen Freddy an i ask him if he wants to go shark fishing .. he side hell yea ...so we went ... i get to a beach that i never been to and start to Inflate the Rafts i get my 12/0 set and ready .. so we start to take the bait out on the raft that's only for one person .. i put my bait out side the raft in the water well this is when the shit hit the fan .. we where about 160 yard out when i see a hammer come out of the water and take the bait the bait was bout 1 foot from the raft when the hammer hit the bait that hammer missed the raft with it's jaws by inches... the hammer did hit the raft with his body ... we did not know what the hell was going to happen if it was coming back to hit the raft but we stared to paddle back like crazy ... when i got back to the beach the shark had ran for about 100 yards and came to a stop i stared to reel my line tight and that's when the hammer got mad and the fight stared i was fighting that hammer for about 1hr 10min ... when i seen the fin it was a grater hammer when my cozen starts getting the shark the hook comes off so i let the reel go and run and jump on the hammer ... i look at my cozen and his was just standing looking at me i hit him with a rock and he wakes up and he jumps on it to we were fighting the hammer on the edge of the water for like 20min.... we had no rope .. ... till it was all over ... dirty south shark hunters came out wining ....well that's one one my crazy story's keep in mind this all happen with in weeks or may be in a mount... this was my first shark as for my fist hammer ..... my crazy fishing story . when we stared to shark fish me and my brother where using 9/0 thinking we where ready .. where we wrung well that's one of the dirty south shark hunters many storys .. for these that don't like what i did to the hammer... it is what it is ..that was my first hammer that was my trophy these jaws are up on my wall ....

thats a sick story joe! when i started sharking i had a 6/0 and 9/0 and swam baits out with an inner tube that i paddled with my legs, then i upgraded to an inflatable raft lol, then got smart and bought a kayak.....

yea tell me about it .. we up graded to a kayak after that we really did not know much about what we where getting in to .. but it's all good now ...

Back In Sept 1 1996 I was 10 Years old I was fishing with my Dad and the
Palm Beach Inlet Jetty Conchs there was about 10 of us all snook fishing
during a mullet run. Big silver mullet were pooring out the inlet all the way from the tripod
to the end of the jetty, all the way across to the pump house, Huge schools of mullet.
Tarpon were flipping in the air Snook were getting airborn and belly flopping.
My friend had just hooked up on a large 15lb jack and almost got him in. Then a huge 10ft +
Hammer head grabbed his jack and lifted the jack out of the water exposing His hammer shaped head
then 2 smaller hammers around 3-4ft were on both sides of the large hammer. All three of them where feeding
on the jack and blood was covering the top of the water. My friend was soon cut off, he was only using a penn 209 levelwind
with 50lb mono. I was casting a Crocadile Spoon out on my penn spinning reel and a 7ft GLoomis Rod 15 lb test mono
with a 50lb leader my dad had cut off his reel for me because I kept getting popped off by the large jacks.
I remeber my dad telling me to only cast where I saw huge strikes in the Mullet.
I saw a huge snook flip right infront of me so I casted out about 10ft passed where the snook was.
The mullet had cleared out right where I was bringing my Spoon, Then I see this huge snook grab my spoon.
I start screaming for my dad telling him I had a Huge snook on. He started laughing to his friends saying
"Go ahead and get that big Jack in." he started walking away from me thinking it was only a jack.
His friend Randy walked over and said "Hey Jim your son has a huge snook on get over here."
So my dad starts running over. I get the snook right up to the side of the Jetty and my dad slides down the side onto
the ledge but the ledge was broken off where he had slid in. He sinks all the way under the water and pops up laughing.
he says "I guess I missed the ledge." He climbs up on the ledge and grabs the snook by the gills and throws him up on the jetty.
I was so excited I had got the only snook so far for the opening day of the season.
Here is a pic of the snook 32inches and around 15-18lbs.
I'll never forget this day in my life.

damn Jimmy, your whole family is generations of fishermen , I imagined the tarpon caught in the 40's on the super oldschool reels and that snook you got in all by yourself when you were that young, good stuff, John, I would have figured you had been shark fishing for a long time considering your nice catches, you have a lot of skill to solo fish and land 2 sharks at once, not bad, Jose, that's funny how you guys caught the shark by jumping on it like a bunch of natives

I've been fishing the Palm Beach Inlet since I was a kid and I've seen
the same people fishing up there even to this day.
I was fishing up there with Mark and his Mom and JD(Hammer)
A family friend of mine Bob Paty showed up and was looking over all of the Shark gear
we had brought up there. He told me he had caught a huge shark before but it was along
time ago and he said to look it up. I took some time today and found his catch.
Well here is the beast. This Hammer was caught by him 8/20/1967 around 826 Lbs.
@ Salerno Inlet

I only knew him as a Snook fisherman.
Next time I see him I'll ask alittle more about his catch.

Damn you mean to tell me that's the shark you were telling me the snook fisherman got on his 3/0!!!!!!!!!!!! That thing's long like mine.

Another picture of one of the tarpons my grandfather got in the keys.

Another picture of one of the tarpons my grandfather got in the keys.

I think my grandfather used to make tarpon scale jewelry.

My favorite fight with a fish thus far..hooked up on a 6' plus tarpon and she starts heading south just like I want. I'm on the end of a jetty and start walking back towards the shore to fight it from there. Its low tide so once I am about 20 ft from the shore I jump off the rocks expecting to land in 2 or 3 ft of water but turns out it was about 7 ft..the currents must of carved a deeper trench in that area and I am in over my head with a big fish on the line. I struggle to keep my reel above the water and I back off on the drag so I can make it back to the beach. I then start to TRY and swim to the shore but I was swimming in place for a few minutes and started to panic a little, I ended up swallowing some water and had a hard time keepin my head up since the waves were pretty nasty. I calmed down and put the reel in freespool and eventually made it to the beach. The tarpon made it waaaay offshore..I fought it in towards the beach this one was a beast it only jumped 2x the whole 20 minute fight and couldn't even get that high it was so fat and heavy. It fought harder than a 7' bull shark easily. I walk further south along the shore where the water is shallower and walk out to the sandbar from there since it was nearly exposed and finished the fight from there since there was no way I'm getting this fish over it was so shallow and a real low tide. Eventually I get her (males only grow to about 80 lbs) to the sandbar and get a good look at it..probably 6'2-6'4" and a wide back, very thick fish. I grab the leader then the fish goes nuts when she sees me standing right on top of her, I got smacked hard on the thigh with her tail and she gill cut my leader. Oh well its a caught fish, just self released. Afterward it sank in how exhausted I was. About 30 minutes after I leadered the fish I nearly vomited from the little bit of seawater I had swallowed. It was a blast I will never forget that day!

OK, since Mojo dusted off this previously posted story, I'll dust this one off in case you missed it!. It's a long read, but a good true story.

A TALE YOU SHOULDN’T TELL YOUR KID WHEN YOU’RE BRIDGE FISHING AT NIGHT

It was winter, in the early 1980’s, and just like every other weekend, my husband, Jerry & I went fishing in the fabulous Florida Keys. We fished a while on the Old Bahia Honda Bridge, and then decided that it was too cold and windy to stay there overnight. We decided to pack it up and head over to the Old Wooden Bridge. You know the place. It’s the Bogie Channel Bridge that goes from Big Pine Key to No Name Key. It’s quiet, peaceful, secluded, and away from the Overseas Highway. We normally took our loyal German Shepard, Harvey, with us when we went to the Keys. For some reason we left him at home this weekend.
It was getting dark, so we started getting our gas Coleman lantern ready so that we could pilchard fish for snapper bait. There were only a few people on the bridge. When it got dark it was a completely moonless night. We dropped the lantern and waited for the pilchards to school up. After about twenty minutes we were ready to start snapper fishing. A couple of hours later, mostly everybody else was gone. A speed boat went racing through the channel a few times, and then stopped and the captain yelled at us to pull up our lantern and turn it off. Jerry responded with, “No man, we’re bait fishing. We aren’t in the channel. It’s perfectly legal to have the lantern there.” The boat left, only to return, zipping through the channel a couple of times. On the third pass, he suddenly veered toward the lantern, and smashed it to bits. How he didn’t end up with an exploding fire ball on his boat, I’ll never know. We were pissed off because it was the only light source that we had. Luckily we had already caught quite a few baits, and had them bagged up in the cooler. We kept fishing.
Around midnight I was getting pretty cold & tired. We were now the only fishermen on the bridge. Knowing that Jerry was going to fish all night, I told him that I was going to climb in my sleeping bag to get warm. That always meant that as soon as I was warm, I’d be asleep. While I was asleep, I kept hearing the motor of a little Jon boat going repeatedly back and forth through the channel. At one point it annoyed me so much that I raised up on my elbow and peered through the void on the side of the bridge to see what was going on. I could vaguely see the outline of the boat which had no running lights. Whoever was on the boat shined a flashlight in my face. I laid back down and fell asleep. Awhile later the boat stopped going through the channel and I settled into a restful sleep. Jerry must’ve run out of bait because he was in his sleeping bag sound asleep too.
Have you ever been somewhere and felt somebody looking at you? You know the feeling. It makes you turn around. Well, while I was in a deep sleep, I suddenly had that feeling. My eyes popped open and all I could see in the complete darkness was the silhouette of some really big muscular guy standing at the foot of our sleeping bags and he had a frigging baseball bat in his hand! OH MY GOD! I instantly scrambled to my feet. My mind was reeling and I had a flood of thoughts going through my head. “Think fast Fuqua, you’ve never been in so much danger as you are in now. Don’t freak out. Show no fear” was all I could think of. In a calm quiet tone of voice, I started talking for our lives. The whole time, I’m inconspicuously nudging Jerry with my heel and praying that he’ll wake up. “Hey man, how are you? We ran out of bait so we decided to get a couple of hours of sleep before daybreak. We were partying a lot, so we were pretty tired. Are you getting ready to fish?” (My best dumb blond imitation.) He listened, and then said, “My car got stuck in the mud on No Name. Can you take me down there to get it?” Dear God in heaven, if I wasn’t scared before, I was terrified now. I knew that if I left the bridge with him, I wouldn’t be coming back. He’d probably kill me, then come back up the bridge to kill Jerry. My heart felt like it was going to pop out of my chest. I said the only thing that would make sense. “Oh, wow, I’m sorry. We cruised here on fumes. We don’t even have enough gas in the car to make it over the bridge. We have to wait for the fish camp to open up in the morning so that we can buy some gas at the boat pumps. There’s a pay phone down there. I’ll be happy to give you some change to make a call.” I’m holding my breath and digging in my jeans pocket for coins. I gave him the change in my pocket. He thanked me and I could see him walk about twenty feet closer to Big Pine Key. It was so dark you couldn’t see any further than that.
I laid back down on top of the sleeping bag and started poking Jerry in the ribs. When he opened his eyes, I cupped my hand around his ear and started whispering to explain what had just happened. His response was, “Where? I don’t see anybody.” No chit Sherlock. It was too dark. Jerry went right back to sleep. There was no way on God’s green earth that I was going back to sleep. My eyes were wide open. I know to this day that the guy crossed the street and doubled back and stood there watching us. I could feel him watching to see what was going to happen. After what seemed like forever, I heard the engine of the Jon boat come to life. The baseball bat wielding guy was in the Jon boat. There was no car stuck on No Name Key! I sat up with my sleeping bag wrapped around me, shaking from fear. I waited for daylight for what seemed like an eternity.
The next morning, there was smoke pouring from a boat that was close to the Spanish Harbor Bridge. It was a cabin cruiser and it was on fire! By 7 AM, the Marine Patrol car came to the bridge and stopped next to us. The officer asked if we’d been out on the bridge all night. I told him yes and he wanted to know if anything unusual had happened. I poured out my guts with all the details of the night’s events starting with the maniac who’d smashed our lantern with his speed boat and ending with the maniac with the baseball bat. He told us that someone had stolen two boats from Doctor’s Arms last night. (It’s the first housing development on Big Pine, closest to the bridge.) They stole a cabin cruiser and a Jon boat. The thieves were using it to off load square grouper, then set the cabin cruiser on fire to conceal the evidence. The Marine Patrol was searching for the Jon boat. “Do you know how lucky you are to be alive?” he asked. WELL HELL’S BELLS, IF I DIDN’T KNOW BEFORE, I SURE DO NOW!!!
The speed boat wanted to get rid of the lantern so that nobody could see what they were doing. The guy in the Jon boat wanted to make sure that we weren’t informants who were watching the operation.
I guess the rule is: If you’re going to sleep on a secluded bridge at night, you better have a big dog or a fast thinking woman with you!

its scary