Greetings SFSC from the Land of 10,000 Lakes!!!

Hey there everyone! I just registered less than a week ago on SFSC, and I hope to soon start my chapter in this shark fishing community! This may get quite lengthy, but I am one who is known to be "detail oriented", which I guess is a plus because my car still runs and my fishing gear is in great shape! lol

To start things off, my name is Mike and I have lived in Minnesota my entire life. Although nowhere near an ocean, I have an endless amount of freshwater lakes and rivers within a few hours drive of me and over the last 15 years or so I have developed my angling skills quite a bit. I will start things off with a bit on my introduction to fishing and then get to where my saltwater adventures with toothy critters begin.

All of it started the summer before Kindergarten or maybe the year before that, not too sure but my grandpa took me out to catch my first fish and he passed away the fall of my Kindergarten year. Anyway apparently my Mom told Grandpa how I was upset my Mickey Mouse rod/reel and "lure" didn't catch me any fish at a family reunion while everyone else had a blast catching tons of fish. He decided to fix that for me by taking me to a nearby lake with a neighbor of ours. After a few hours buzzing around trolling with Rapala's we decided to try worms and a bobber. In a few minutes I had 10 big Bluegill in the boat and by the end of the day those 10 fish were mine compared to the big fat ZERO for Gramps and the neighbor! To make things even better we got to eat half of them and then Gramps helped me release the other 5 (I hear from Grandma he was a big Catch and Release guy, but since the late 90's Bluegill have been found in the Crow River in MN as a non-native species to the system...where we released 5 around that year frame...oops )

Since then I have been fortunate enough to have a step-dad who loves to fish as well as many family and friends who do too. When my mom and step-dad were dating I always asked him to go fishing. This guy knows his stuff with a rod and reel. Over the years with him I caught my first of many Walleye, Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass, Sauger, Common Carp, Yellow Perch, Northern Pike, Bowfin, Muskie, Channel Catfish and other freshwater fish. He caught a few firsts with me, but for most of the freshwater fish he has caught one before me. However...there is one exception to that. Last fall on the St.Croix River in Stillwater MN I caught my first two Lake Sturgeon! Let me tell ya guys...my brand new Abu 6500 C3 got spooled twice to the 10-15yds of mono backing I have, and that was on a 25-30 pound fish. That is why I started looking for a big ol' Penn since Sturgeon get up to 100 pounds around here! And if my step-dad reads this in the future...yes I am STILL rubbing it in your face you old fart!

Now since my family started taking yearly week-long trips south to the beaches I have found my step-dad and uncle to only be able to join once every two or three years. The rest of the family is my Mom, Aunt, Grandma, three cousins aged 5-13, and my brother who is 10 years younger than me. Of course I needed an "out" from the chaos of 3 adult women having me do stuff and watching the kids, so I looked up the fishing in the area (our first two trips were to St. Simon's Island, GA). The first thing I found was Coastal Island Charters and they had a picture of a HUGE Blacktip shark on their front page. Yupp...I was doing it. I called mom and told her to just book us a trip, I would call to specify the species later. Well I gotta admit the morning we got up for the trip I told her were gunna catch sharks she did look at me funny like I was joking, until I showed her the pictures online. She said most of the sharks were smaller and had kids in the pictures so she figured she could handle it. I sort of agreed with her. We met the Captain at the dock, went to cast net a pile of Menhaden, then followed the shrimping boats as they tossed by-catch off the sterns. I was amazed at the dolphins and sharks feeding like crazy here. It was a fishing mecca! In about two hours I had a few 2-5' Blacktips, Sandbars and a Spinner about 4' long to my name. I was happy as hell on the TLD25 reels and 40lb mono. Mom enjoyed the view through her camera as I looked like my smiles would split my face in half. Then she decided to try it since I appeared to have it easy on these fish. Of course her first bite was a slow roll which the captain said was likely the big Bull shark around not long ago. This thing was 300-400 pounds and Mom knew this was going to be a tough one, but I think she underestimated it a bit still. At first she said "This is easy, he's swimming right in with me." In less than 30 seconds of hooking up she was on the deck with both knees under the gunwale to keep steady. The first thing she said as the fish began to run was "Oh sh!t...I gotta work out more" lol. After half an hour the captain said to cut the line as the shark was going to burn up our fishing time and it wasn't coming in any time soon. By the end we had over 30 sharks to both of us. Mom had her big hook up and I had myself an estimated 150 pound Spinner Shark under my belt!
When we got back the captain told me to get a rod/reel combo in MH action from the local shop and to take a gallon ziplock bag of Menhaden to the beach with a slipsinker rig. I did as he instructed me to, and after wading out into chest deep water to cast I had my first LAND BASED SHARK! Sure it was a 2.5' Blacktip. But it was also a lesson learned. Have pliers. Yes...I learned the hard way even small sharks have nasty teeth and WILL bite if you stick your finger in their mouth for the hook. Thank god I was able to pry the mouth off my finger and I got nothing but a scratch on the finger.

My next trip was almost identical, but I dragged my uncle and step-dad down with me to SSI. Same trip, but rougher seas and weather made it less eventful on the charter boat. We used cut Bonito this time and got one or two Spinners each, but nothing too big. Again the captain let me keep the last 1 and a half Bonito we had leftover, so I gathered my big Catfish gear I brought and my step-dad and I hit the beach. It didn't take long and my step-dad landed his first Sandbar shark! That thing was wild though, about 5' long and seemed to want nothing more than one of our hands or feet in his mouth. Another bite was not happening to this kid, I had my wire cutter and got the hook free. I caught about 4 or 5 more small Blacktip sharks from the beach before we left.

Since those trips we have gone to Panama City Beach and to Sanibel Island. I didn't have much luck at PCB as I was limited with tackle options and the same with bait, I didn't know enough about shark fishing from shore at that time. But in October 2013 I hit Sanibel with all my big freshwater gear beefed up with 80lb mono and 10/0-12/0 circle hooks. I caught my first Spotted Sea Trout on a spoon the night we arrived and had that feeling I would enjoy this particular trip a lot. I was right in every way possible. First off, every corner has an ice cream shop that had Chocolate Chunk Cherry ice cream so I had 2-4 servings per day lol. Second, we stayed right on the beach so I could fish 24/7. To top it off, the fishing was PHENOMENAL!!! Every day at sunrise I cast netted tons of Greenbacks, or threw lures in hopes of a Snook or Trout. I never caught anything at morning but come mid-day I would stand on the first sandbar during low tide and catch Spanish Macks and Jacks all day. Live bait, lures, anything caught them and everyone with me on the trip got their first Spanish Mack and Jack. My younger brother has become a hardcore fishing kid now at age 10, he stayed out with me all day and all night when he could. That was the other thing, night fishing was crazy! All week was flat dead calm glass water, which made the bugs horrible, but the full moon brought the Snook and Sharks out. All night I saw Snook in inches of water, sometimes swimming between my feet. The Ladyfish were active too which made great bait. I caught plenty of catfish all night, and that kept my brother busy if the sharks would not bite, which happened all but one night. We did see their fins cruising the second and third guts but no takers. Until the night before we left I got one thump and set the hook on what I guessed as a catfish. I handed it to my little cousin Leo who is 11, and here he is reeling up his first Shark. A little Sharpnose, but then again I had introduced LBSF to a pre-teen kid who had the same smile I did years ago on SSI. I couldn't be happier. I do have a spooky story to share about that night but I will put that into the thread for spooky fishing experiences.

Since all this I have become a member of SFSC and another online Land Based Shark Fishing community known as Sharks On The Sand. I recognize some of SOS.com's members on here and send out a greeting to all of you and everyone else on SFSC!

I have since upgraded to a Penn 9/0 Senator and 30-80lb Profile Tuna Stopper rod. I have plans to get leaders made soon as we plan another adventure to Sanibel this fall! But this time...I am gunna put the smack down on the big toothy predators!

Cheers
- Mike