I feel priveleged to introduce a shark fisherman of this caliber to other folks on this website.Keith Knecht is an old timer who has been in this sport a long ,long time and has more background than most of us and we can certainly learn from his many years of expierience.As past President of the Tampa Bay Shark Club we was in charge of one of Florida's largest and most active shark clubs of past years.Some of his biggest sharks caught include a 12 foot Dusky (released)and a calculated 586 lb bull shark. At 63 he is still going strong in his quest to tangle with sharks.Let's make Mr Keith Knecht feel at home in this forum,Welcome Aboard Keith!!!
Keith and his 9 ft 3 inch Bull shark with a calculated weight of 586 lbs
HIS STORY of the 9 -3 BULL
This shark was caught off Gandy Bridge. It hit at 2 AM in the morning. The bait was a 25# Black Drum that had been in the water since 10:45 PM. It was a full moon, light winds and clear, and there had been thunder storms earlier that evening. High tide was at 4AM. I was using a Harnell 550 and Penn # 80 International with 80# Dacron. The leader was 1/16 " 7X7 cable about 12' long. Tandem hooks with the front being a 12/0 and the back one a 10/0. Water temp was 85'. The fight took 1 hour and 50 minutes. It started on the catwalk and ended there. The shark swam parallel to the bridge and when it reached the end of the catwalk I had to climb up on the bridge. I had "fun" with the street light posts. Having to unsnap the harness and pass the rod around them was a bear. At one point I had only one side of the harness unsnapped, all of a sudden the shark took off and the loose harness pinned one of my arms back against my body. I couldn't move it. I finally managed to back off on the drag and get my arm free. The fight took me from Pinellas county into Hillsboroughand then all of the way back into Pinellas county. The shark was 9'3" and had a whopping 65" girth. By formula 586#. The stomach had the head and bill from an alligator that I would estimate would have been at least 6' and two flippers from a turtle. This shark was caught in 1978 one day before O'Niells Shark fishing Tournament. The winning shark that year was a 350 # Bull.
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
welcome aboard bring your shark book with you
"2017 Team little rock
Never test the depth of the water with both feet"
I DO NOT SWIM IN THE OCEAN
GO BIG OR GO HOME
welcome
SFSC -East Coast Events Coordinator
Welcome! We'd love to read your posts & hear some of your stories! 
Welcome nice to see you got on the site.
Welcome to the site glad to have you!
Do you own Minnows & Monsters?
welcome
gino #7419
Nice. I heard stories about Gandy Bridge and Skyway.
Thanks all for the great welcome! What an AWSOME site!!! This site really brings back memories of "The good old days", and for some of you it looks like the good old days are here now. There's nothing quite like shark fishing. You guys in South Florida are lucky. Winter sharking up here is almost non existant. Water gets too cold and things really slow down. I'm getting cabin feever waiting for the end of March or beginning of April for things to light up around here.
I'm going to send William some video of a large bull that I released near Howard Franklin Bridge a few years ago. He would have dwarfed the one in the picture above. He took a large drum on the surface of the water not 6 feet from the boat. The bait had been in the water for only a minuite. Must have zeroed in on the drum when we caught it. The drum had done a lot of splashing around on the surface before we landed it.
Good rule of thumb. # 1. Rig bait on leader attached to line. #2. Put the rod in the rod holder. #3. Attach safety rope. #4. Drop bait in water, set clicker and immediately adjust the drag so that it's won't back lash or be too tight. #5 Blow up baloon. #6 Float out bait if shark is not already on. This was one of those times that I was glad that I was following my own rules.
Sharkboy813- No, I am only the manager and the guy that does everything at Minnows and Monsters.
By the way, for those of you with inquiring minds, my "extensive" research showed that sharks bite best on Friday and Saturday nights. Probaby skewed by the fact that I fished mostly on those nights. I look foward to getting to know you guys.
Almost forgot, I published a book last year (Not about sharks) and you can read the first chapter at http://www.zahwu.com .
Keith
o ok i just new you worked there because i brought my 12/0 in for repair an u surfaced the drag washers an rebent the handle. welcome to the site.
Again Keith welcome to the site.You are a great addition to the site.Guys Keith was one of a couple of guys I learned alot from when I first joined the shark club back in the early 80,s.When he talked I would always put my listening ears on......Dave