David, Jeff, and I hit the beach for our first guided shark trip. Forum member John Goodheart and his son Mike from Iowa were looking for some large sharks from the beach. Armed with a variety of baits and a variety of gear, we hit the beach at 7PM. We had baits rigged and set out before the sun went down at 8. I still had one bait of our 8 different baits to paddle out and there was already a rod going off on the beach.
Mike jumped on the rod and landed this 5'4" Male Blacktip caught on a 6/0 with a jack for bait...
While Mike was fighting his shark the Speedmaster went off baited with a half of a ladyfish. John jumped on it and landed this 5'5 Female Blacktip...
Baits were paddled back out and this wee 2'6" Blacktip was landed by Mike...
Little guy:
Only a few minutes later, a rod with a larger piece of jack went off. John landed this 6'6" Lemon in about 20 minutes...
During the fight, yet another rod went off and Mike grabbed it...it more than likely would have been the biggest of the night, but the line broke...
Moments later another rod went off and John caught the biggest blacktip of the night at 5'6"...
It was quite the ornery one...
After about a half hour of down time, we had almost simultaneous runs. One was on a small 3# jack as bait and the other was on a 10# head of a previously 30# bull dolphin. Both sharks were landed in about a half hour and both ended up being exactly 90" long. 7'6" male and a 7'6" female. This was a great ending to a great night...
The sharks are in full force out there. Jacks, ladyfish, and bull dolphin caught most of the fish. They weren't too picky with bait sizes. The yakked baits between 100 and 125 yards got the majority of attention. 7 sharks caught, tagged, photographed, and released...way to go John and Mike. Hope to see you guys again soon!
