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william · 2008-09-17T14:39:38Z

It was April the year was 1981 my buddy Rene,Mike (aka seaweed), and i decided to fish the old Bahia Honda bridge because there were reports of a huge Hammerhead shark that was terrorizing the tarpon guides by eating there catch right in front of there eyes.We later found out that the huge shark reputed to be 16 foot long even had a name ,,,,they called OLD MOE.On the road to the bridge we stopped like usual at the Holiday Isle docks and at Bud and Mary's docks to pick up shark bait from the charter boats.Well April as you may know is a month when the charter boats in the keys and in particular in Islamorada are catching big amberjacks on the humps offshore.So I decided it was time to use some real big bait and we end up getting two 60 lb aj's to use for bait that night.At this point i was a young 19 year old apprentice with big ideas on making a name for myself among the shark fishing Kahunas at the South Beach pier and Rene was my inspiration,teacher and my fierce competitor as well.Anyone who new Rene knew that he called himself #1 and he did everything in his power to live up to that self proclaimed title.So we get out to the bridge and everyone is putting out the shark baits that they wanted for themselves,a whole cuda,a blackfin tuna carcass,a big jack crevalle and i grab the 60 lb amberjack and proceed to cut it in half;there looking at me wondering what the hell i'm up to.So there eyes got bigger when out of a canvass bag i pull out a long yellow nylon rope with a 480 lb cable rig and two 20/0 hooks tied to it.I hook the half amberjack on the 20/o hooks,tie the end of the hundred foot rope to the concrete column and fling the rig with the aj over the side on the incoming tide right after night fall.I knew that my hunch would work but no one from South Beach had tried it before and Rene was maybe intimidated by the possibility of getting outdone by a young guy with a rope.In the middle of the night the tide changed and i went to check on my rope rig to clean off the weeds that stack up on a bait on top of the water but no shark had hit it.That night Rene must of gone to bed early because at five thirty am he was allready awake and Rene yells "did you guys hear that"I was half asleep and then he repeated it,he went to the rail looks down and starts freaking out "oh my God you got a huge Tiger"So i run to the rail and before my eyes is a huge tiger thrashing threatening to snap the nylon rope so i start yelling to Seawweed to hurry and help me untie the rope so we can fight him and walk him down the bridge to the end.My knees were shaking and my hands were trembling with nervous anticipation of what might happen walking down from the center of the bridge to the end with an angry tiger shark and sections of the bridge had no rail left.We were arguing amongst ourselves about how we would fight this angry beast.We decided we would gaff it with our huge bridge gaff to secure it first, then all three of us would hang on to he rope and walk left towards the end together,,,,sort of like in a tug of war where you have an anchor man and the rest of the team in front.So we untied the rope loaded a shopping cart with the rest of our gaffs and ropes and walked and fought him all the way to the end.The closer we got to the end the bigger the shark looked and by the time we got to the end we were exhausted from pulling on the rope and the sun was coming up.I was impressed with the size,strength and beauty of this tiger shark and felt in my heart that i was now to be respected by the rest of the guys at South Beach. No i had'nt caught it on rod and reel but i had developed a new technique that worked the first time it was tried.That feat was never equaled and no other shark bigger then that was ever caught by anyone in our circle of friends but i knew i was on my way to making my mark.My brother Jorge hooked a much larger Tiger shark the following year at the Bahia Honda bridge but that shark was so huge that it bit threw heavier cable after they were unable to untie the rope from the rail the knot had gotten too tight to undo and the shark's body was coming halfway out of the water putting tremendous strain on the rope and cable.Rene was now a madmen moved with fire in his veins to fish harder then ever to retain his self proclaimed title of #1. What great memories!!! My friend Seaweed trying to rope the shark. I was also in the water trying to tail rope the tiger. The Tiger at the Holiday Isle weigh station.485 lbs 11 foot 3 inch Rene de Dios and I with the Tiger that got his attention.

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