William ask to relate how i experienced the old South Beach Pier ..1959 add 15 years equals 1976 i guess that's about correct ,i took a bus ride to South Beach 1st , stop in bait and tackle in front of what is now Penrods, winter time cause when i first caught shark fishing fever it came through Kingfish and Mackrel fishing and my old retired Hebrew friends of Miami Beach.
Damn the first time i hit SBP in the winter time with my Garcia equipment and Daiwa rods and reel it was straight out amazing , how so ? 1976, waves were crashing down on that jetty poor excuse for a bridge , fisherman were pulling up mackrel and kingfish to rival the best offshore commercial boats and good size ones too, i did good that day i was stoked , no poser's on that pier " ruff " was a kind description for the bridge fishermen of the day actually looked like a pirates ship of sort's .
Ok that first chaotic day goes on, rough seas , rods reels flying out, kingfish and mackrel as well as bluefish flying in, that day i learned how to trap bait fish., very cool.
Ok so now an old guy hooks a huge trophy fish, i guess a heavy king fish, x-cept that when he brings it in theres only a head left on the fish ..the bridge goes quiet...well what's the big deal i thought, so they start arguing with this guy sleeping in a military sleeping bag really ruff character with a big mouth and a bad temper !
i look over hadnt noticed yet but the sleeping bag "bum" had a least ten thousand dollars worth of Fin-Nors and Penn 12/0-14/0 + Internationals rod reel combos ready to go.
WTF this guy came came to life from a coma inside his sleeping bag argued with the old Hebrews and all of a sudden he was the captain of SouthBeach Pier and his crew mixed in with the bluefish fishermen knew what time it was.
Every body left the front line of the pier , the Gold Edition Fin-Nors and Penn-Internationals
took the helm just to say , the day was over for the tourist (fishermen) now Rene de dios and co. do what they do.
No sooner said than done that one of his crew was rowing out in at least 4-6 ft. waves about six hundred yards out or more, in a skiff to drop off stingray baits at the second reef Southbeach.
Bigger than life for the times 1976 truly an epic day with two equally chaotic scenes if you include the rough seas spraying the pier forcefully , cold weather and worldclass fishing action.
When i returned next week again to the baitshop and South Beach Pier , i read a Miami Herald clipping where it showed Rene De Dios with the 12ft hammer head shark he waited two days to catch in his sleeping bag at Southbeach pier.
Obs. Later on Rene de Dios was more dedicated to shark conservation than sharkfishing and helped Rosenthals Universty of Miami program locating and tagging uncommon sharks.
Best Regards,
Al.
Love to see all the different people that knew Rene tell the story of the land-based shark fishing Icon in there own words. It brings back memories of what it was like to fish south beach pier during that era.Rene was driven to catch a shark every single time he set foot on that pier and he would beg, borrow,or catch his own to get the bait he needed to hook the next monster shark.Any fishermen catching a nice fish during the bluefish/mackeral blitz was a target for Rene's shark bait pleading, most of the time folks knew him and would just give him the fish knowing that if it did'nt get hit Rene would return the now exhausted fish to them. He was obsessed and undaunted by rejection;when one person would'nt give up a 5 lb bluefish they just caught ,,,no problem Rene would catch his own or ask the next guy catching free linable sized fish for bait. It was fun to watch Rene on that pier doing his thing and working the crowd for bait but the show really began when Rene got hooked up to big shark,then it was "showtime" as he would often scream out.Those were the days. 
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