7/20 - Super Sharkin'

It always cracks me up when I watch those Keys guys on TV and they're somewhere on the Gulf side, behind some islands, and they are shark fishing. They always seem to hang a butterflied Barracuda off the side of the boat (flats boat) and all of a sudden from out of no where comes a 300 pound Shark in just 2 feet of water!

Even once watched a show where the guy used an AFTCO "tailer" and tailed the Shark, and it went nuts and bit down on the rubber rub rail of his Hewes flats boat. Really? A shark by the tail, attached to a 3 foot long pole? Really?

Either way. That's N-O-T how it's done here.



But here's an old example:


And I wish I could be showing you todays, VIDEO.

Because I had Jason G. and 3 friends on board for a big day of N.E. Florida Sharkin' on Saturday.

I did hours of "LIVE" action video. Even had the underwater cam going.

But when I got home, fired up the computer and went to editing all of it. Something happened.
And that something wasn't good!

The files were all gumbled around. I got half way thru editing out the parts I wanted. And then my editing software shit the bed and just wouldn't do what it was supposed to.

Hours and hours I spent playing with it. And since I was up at 4am..."I just couldn't take it any more." 

I hit the sack at 8:30pm  Yeah, it was still light outside. And then the next day (yesterday) I screwed around with it even more. Till total frustration set in again.

Then, I gave up and just cleared everything out and guess I'll have to try again.

So... to make a long story short.

We instantly were hooked up on a big Blacktip 5 minutes after leaving the jetties.
And that's all she wrote. For the next few hours it was more I.G. - Instantaneous Gratification!!!!!

By 8:30-9:00 we left the shrimp boats and headed to the beach. Jason threw the castnet and we loaded up with Pogies and loaded my chum chopper and took off to the S.E. hole. (3 miles east of the ole Sea Turtle Inn) Pulled up in 56' of water and just let the SSW breeze blow us along.....

MY KINDA SLOW TROLL!

Yeah, the Jettywolf is the catz azz. The boat drifts perfectly stern to the breeze, so we just drifted perfectly due north. No gas used, no pulling Pogies too fast. Just the perfect drift.

The 5 of us working the rods, and reeling in a few more Sharks. This time they were all small ones.
Then, came the GOOD BITE.

One Pogie was eaten off the hook on one side of the boat, then we saw a streaking silver fish run to a double pogie rig on the other side of the boat, then a big boil and then a screaming run!!!!!!

Oh, man were we excited as we sent Emily our 100 pound enthusiastic lady angler from hell and back to the rod. This gal was so much fun to watch. Small like a sports car, and full of energy.

The line buzzed off the reel like a King.......but was it a King?

We gave chase and then saw it on the surface. It was a Bonita about 10 pounds. Dead and tail wrapped.

Emily was reeling the poor bastard backwards. And it died after a big run and then being reeled backwards.

She was great though, and the video was great too.

(Capt Dave's Sport Fishing daily rates:  http://www.captdaves.com/fishing/index.html )

We drifted all the way to the St. Johns River Sea Buoy, passing schools of pogies out in 50 feet of water that were blown out there with the winds and falling tide. Each time we passed the pods, we hooked up a Shark.

If sharks were Kingfish today we could have fed a third world country!!

So we picked up and ran to the exact same shrimp boat that we followed this morning. The sharks were really small behind the boat. But the ones close to the shrimper and over top the nets were BIG!

We ended the day with a 100 pounder that Rick handed off to Emily and she finished the bad boy off.

But as it turned out. I was missing footage of this battle anyhow and it was all about Emily today.
What a litl' ball of fire she was.

Again..."the girls make the day fun!"

So, I have no video or photos. Who needs photos when ya have two GoPro camera's going??

Well maybe next time.

Either way, the action is out there. Close, and no long runs at all.  But, I guess if a Kingfish was needed for sure. I supposed the reefs are the ticket.