Fishing the Boca grande pass for a very long time i notice one species that i rarely see are tigers. I finally got one a few weeks after the previous big hammer challenge and it was a extremely fat 7' football of a fish. Now i often take my boat out to a reef 12 miles straight out of the pass and on two occasions seen massive 10 and 12 foot tigers come up and grab chum bags and extra bait we hang off the boat. The spring of 2012 my cousin and I hung a 120lb+ ray of the side of our boat and started chumming it up with a 12 gauge 
. After scouting the water which on that day was crystal clear we saw a shadow approach and at first we expected a hammer due to the location and size but once it got close we saw those stripes and it took that ray right off the rope.
Now i bring this up because today i had an encounter behind Coyo Coasta island directly across the pass with a tiger that may have been 13 feet. I took my mom and aunt out on the boat and decided while they blabber i would anchor the boat on one of my favorite spearfishing spots for big southerns and i wondered into deeper water then usual and when i surfaced a charter boat captain yelled at me to get in his boat. At first i thought i might have swam into his line but after he screamed a second time "THERE'S A SHARK COMING" i hightailed it into his boat. i was in about 8 feet of water and the captain said he saw me swimming and then his customer noticed a big shark no more than 20 feet in front of me. I didn't see the shark while i was in the water so when i got on the boat i really thought it was some 6 footer that i probably wouldn't get out for but he said there was a massive shark twice the size of me. That got me curious so i asked him what kind of shark it was and he said it had to be a hammerhead because of its size. As he drove me back to my boat in about 6 feet of water cruising the sand bar was a tiger that had to be 12-13 feet. It was massive, fat overlapping its jaws, a tail that looked like a tree trunk, and a jaw that would have made two bites of me haha. Makes me think what would have happend if i stuck one of those rays with my sling..
Anyway just thought i would post something since i have been really busy with school and what not. What stories do ya'll have?
Also if anyone has caught tigers or seen the in the pass i would like to know. Thanks
My buddy rudy just got a 9 footer on Sanibel
Awesome insight in this Post. I have always thought utilizing 120lb baits for Shark fishing off the Beach would draw some attention. It seems it just might.
Awesome insight in this Post. I have always thought utilizing 120lb baits for Shark fishing off the Beach would draw some attention. It seems it just might.
Yeah the big stinky southerns attract a lot of prize fish unfortunately a ray that size off the Boca Grande pass beach turns into a para sailing adventure
I just got back from my cousin's wedding in the Bahamas and we did some private dives there and those 100-150lb rays would hover right next to you hopping to get some scraps...it was hard to resist sticking one. on the last dive we did we went out with a local we know out there and he promised us a dive with some massive tigers but no luck just a bunch of tippers and lemons.
Awesome post thanks Dan. For as long as I can remember the west coast of Florida and the Gulf has been known for big tiger sharks .I remember big Tigers caught from the Naples pier in the 1970's and afterwards. The guys on the Naples pier would target the big tigers in the summer and fall and the big hammers in the spring and summer. There were stories of giant tigers over 13 foot stripping 16/0 s .The south west coast of Florida has a lot of Tigers for those willing to put in the time and pursue them.
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
It's a shame you can't shark fish off the Naples pier anymore. Dylan Gigliotti and I went out there a while back. It was late, around 11:00, and we didn't even make it halfway out onto the pier before a cop told us we couldn't fish our big gear. I had never heard any formal reports about tigers in upper SW Florida, but many of the waters I have started fishing seem like natural hangouts for them, especially the Captiva/Sanibel area. Gigliotti and I went out to the ____ pier a few nights ago, and I brought in a tiger I estimated at 8' (stellarol suggested it may have been 9'). I broke it off trying to walk him to the beach, so no pics. Two smaller ones around 6' or slightly under were caught the following day.
I have never seen any by boca but 20+ miles out of stump pass I have seen some tigers when grouper fishing. They aren't shy and will swim right up to the boat. I have been shark fishing that area for almost 7 years now and never landed one from the beach but I know I have lost a few based on how they fight after watching my buddies fight them.
I have never seen any by boca but 20+ miles out of stump pass I have seen some tigers when grouper fishing. They aren't shy and will swim right up to the boat. I have been shark fishing that area for almost 7 years now and never landed one from the beach but I know I have lost a few based on how they fight after watching my buddies fight them.
From my experiences over the years and from what others have told me it seems that Boca doesn't inhabit many tigers, although occasionally some beasts do pass through.
a few years ago i saw a huge tiger (probably pushing 11-12 feet) cruising just off the beach following a school of big eagle rays (the ones in the picture) in maybe 6 feet of water. This was the first tiger i had seen out there but we saw it probably close to ten times over the same weekend. Unfortunately we never got a chance to put him on the sand but it was cool to see her. Lets hope someone can put a tag in one of these monsters