The east coast does possess its own special shark mojo, indeed. That's exactly why we're here.
The winter weather patterns are actually ... wintry, but that's not stopping this year's participating anglers from giving it a serious go. After crossing the state, we had the chance to meet a lot of them in person last night at the anglers meeting, along with Pat Turner from the Nat'l Marine Fisheries Service who was there to coordinate research tracking tag allocations and answer questions. The plan is to work our way through the field of play during the week to catch these anglers in action as they tag document and release their sharks.
Today, we spent some time with Josh and Byron around the middle of the tournament boundaries. As you'll see, things were looking sharky, but the action ended up being quiet. I talked with Mike Palmer and he feels there's a possibility the sharks may have moved offshore to wait out the choppy conditions brought on by stout easterly winds, which are expected to subside, as temperatures rise back normal in the coming days.
The Paxton Bros with Pat Turner from the Nat'l Marine Fisheries Service
With Julio and Will from the South Florida Shark Club
Last minute holdouts the Angler's Meeting at Juno Beach Pier
Byron prepares to run the gauntlet and drop some meat
Rolling on the action
Andreas (middle) reported a few medium-size spinner and blacktip sharks working the surf zone, along with large snook ... but heavy currents and low visibility are also at play
Planning a shot
It was a costly paddle for Byron, one pole, and a pair of Costa Del Mars were sacrificed to the shark gods
Loren and the crew from 'Florida Surf Casters' made the trip from Jacksonville
L - R: Brooks, Byron, Josh, Sean
No fish, but a great opportunity to work out a few technical issues and plan the rest of the week. Around 6:00pm we did start to see some blacktip and spinners breaching within a few hundred yards of the beach. Towards the end of the day, we were working our way a little more to the south to rendezvous with one of the tournament's top-contenders, but conditions were less-than-favorable. We'll be back in the saddle Sunday for day and nighttime action. The weather reports are promising improving conditions so stay tuned as temperatures heat up, along with the fishing action. Over & Out for now, from Florida's Treasure Coast.
The Bros