What I've Learned

I have fished hard this week and lost WAY to many sharks. Tuesday night we hooked up on a 10lb piece of cuda .. cut off. Wednesday night I fished the beach with steve and seaweed and nothing but little hits. Thursday night I fished bear cut and got whacked on the carcass of a 20-30lb aj.. it swam to the surface like a hammer and then we got cut off by a boat that came around the corner. Friday night split up the team to the beach and rsmas and fished till 3am. I go to pick up half the team at the beach and get a call that Alex is hooked up back at the cut. Race back with the car.. only to get a call.. got cut off by the piling. Didn't sleep and met flats guide Joe Gonzalez at the rsmas dock at 6.. we headed on the boat to a beach you can only reach by boat.. soaked the baits for 5 hours and then called it quits. I got back to the dock and headed to Zacks house.. we loaded up the Robalo with gear.. and headed out around 2 at the dock we snagged a 20lb southern ray and plopped him into the live well. We got to the spot and we began to learn why we had been loosin em.. theres a shoal that comes up from it being 10 ft deep to about 5 and then drops back down.. I think this is where we're loosen em on the cut offs that aren't boats. We dropped the ray out with a balloon missin a wing.. and boy was she beautiful. 30 mins goes by and zack see's a shadow behind her.... she comes up flapping frieking out .. and then WHACK clacklackclackCLACKCLACKCLACK!!!!ZZZZZ!!!!!!!!! we let her take it meanwhile pulling up the anchor.. I set the hook and she's screaming line.. we head to the beach.. I jump off with steven and stephan and start fightin from land... a crowd of ppl gather. All of a sudden the fight loosens up and up comes half of my ray with a gigantic bite mark out of her =(. In anger I pick her I pick up the rig and slice my hand (I didn't break off the wire properly with the L in my excitement to get the bait out). We load up back onto the boat and as I jump back in I feel my pocket... MY PHONE WAS IN IT! Needless to say the iphone is now dead. So we soak the baits for a little bit more and then call it quits. Headin in we dock the boat by the L and H to get some more bait. At home we rinse off the boat zack eddie and steve head to there houses for dinner.. I head to mine for a dinner and a quick nap before fishing again. Well quick nap turns into 8 this morning cuz my sister forgot to wake me up. And now I'm up and ready to head out again with some lessons learned.

Rules for fishing my bearcut spot (some may apply to other spots you guys fish)

1) Let the fish take it .. get around all the pilings and onto the beach BEFORE setting the hook
2)Bring a spotlight to shine on your line so you have a way of warding boats off at night when your hooked up.
3)When fighting the fish from the beach make sure you fight to the right of the shoal and if the fish crossess it you cross it. (woulda never learned that without a daytime boat trip)
4) Take the time to fit your rig to the specific bait you are fishing... because simply interchanging it does not always work (it may not be properly spread)

5) Always break your line with the L-never get lazy it will come to slice you in the end.

6) Get some rest sometimes taking a little break and getting the proper rest will give you the time to make sure everything is done right.

I'll post some pics with the story soon.