Now it was Jim's turn. He had one hook up, lost. Must be small sharks, I said. Then another bit, and it got the bait. So we kept trying and Jim got a small what I think are Atlantic Sharp nose. Then, the shrimp boat stopped and pulled it's nets up........"oh here we go", I thought. But nothing happened.
I like shrimp boats with tons of Dolphins behind it, and I like to see the sharks chasing the boat too. A slow moving shrimper the better it seems to me. So we ran up to another boat and gave it a try. It was dead, too.
I also like it when there's 20 shrimpers working the same area, early in the morning. But some days are better than others, and this wasn't one of them. So off we headed.
I ran to Nassau Sound. And ran into one of the "slews" with 20+ feet of water between two shallow sand bars. A boat was already there, hooking up. Sharks probably. So we moved into the inside of them in the slew and I started chumming. The tide was high and there wasn't any current at all. Just like Trout fishing, the rules are the same. No current, no fish....no sharks/tarpon.
So we picked up and ran north to the beach outside Amelia Island, around the Ritz Carlton hotel area. We started a drift in 14 feet of water, and with the south west wind it would take us out to deeper water. Just what I wanted. Make our own current, I guess you could say.
I saw a boat coming out of the sound as we passed by, something about it was different as I spied on it from far far away. It was Capt Tom, my fellow BlackLab Marine 26' CC, plate aluminum boat owner. I haven't seen Tom in a long while. He lives on the inside of Amelia Island. So he pulled up in his super duty tricked out boat. It's like mine, but as I said....it's, tricked out! Mine is kinda basic.
After chatting with Tom and crew, I thought to myself. "Dang, Tom is the only person I can relate too when it comes to boats around here." He, as we say in the alloy boat world is one of the guys who, "gets it".
So as Tom took off, I feverishly chummed and as we drifted out to around 30 feet, I glanced at my 12" sounder screen and saw nothing but bait, probably Pogies balled up on the bottom. And this is when it was Game-On.
Jimbo was into "PULLERS". Many were Atlantic Sharp nose around 4 feet, but a few were larger Blacktips and a Spinner or two that put on the Brown Marlin show for us. Exploding the water and then skipping and spinning across the water to do nothing but chew up, 200 pound test mono. Those big Spinners are some bad mammer-jammers.
It's really hard to get quality photos of a fish that is 100 feet away and jumping and splashing as I cleared the other line. But I did get a few decent pics, with my new camera.
Jimbo was sweating, and so was I after accidentally picking up a rod that was bowed over with drag screaming. But we had fun and the action was HOT as we continued our drifting with hardly a breeze.
But we never saw any Tarpon in the slick, but we gave it one hell of a try. All the sharks action proved we were doing everything right. Maybe just not the right spot. But my theory is, do not leave fish to find fish elsewhere.
We headed in and still had about 5 pounds or so of Pogies out of probably 25 pounds I caught in my cast net, in the morning.
Next up: Thursday morning 1/2 day, with Roger J. and his 6 & 8 year old sons. Then, Friday with regular and "veteran Jettywolf'er" Don M. and his guest. We may do a bit of sharking, but if it's slow we're gonna stick to LT fishing (light tackle) at the inlet and in the river. Then, a Saturday 1/2 day, with Charlie H. and his grandsons.
