31" Atlantic Sharpnose Shark @ Flat Bridge Monday Night

Had the day off work on Monday as always, so after taking my son Cody to school I headed out to Sleepy Hollow. Tried my favorite spot with no hits. Then decided to leave the holler early and try the flat bridge instead. I think I was just lucky last week with the sleepy hollow flounder because recent reports have been skunky from others in the area. Flat bridge has been HOT though...

First cast on the flat bridge I hook into a small jack but it came off before I could get it over the rails. Using the same white gulp swimming mullet, I kept casting and jigging looking for the school of jacks. Several minutes passed and I finially get another small jack. After trying a couple other spots on the bridge that was it for the day trip.

Suddenly on the way home I get the urge to stop by Gander Mountain and stockup on some shark rigging. You see the last couple weeks I've seen 3 sharks hooked but unable to land. To prevent cutoffs I grabbed some 80lb steel wire leader. I also found an awesome drop net that was only $30 so I picked that up as well. With the new drop net and the wire, I'm not losing anymore sharks!

Night time comes and I get to the flat bridge around 10pm. I made wire leaders earlier in the day so I was ready. First spot I had a good hit on cut jack but somehow the hook popped off during fight. Now I'm not certain but I thought I saw the tail of a shark as it approached the shallow shoreline. But as the fish turned the hook just came out. Ahh! Not cool!
I jigged a white gulp swimming mullet for awhile and caught a few ladyfish. I even caught a 11.75" flounder that was thrown back.

I waited a long time for another hit but nothing. I decided to cut the ladyfish I brought and try dropping it a little past where the ladyfish were steadily feeding. This plan turned out to be very smart. I got a couple nice licks then finially...another fish on and it's pulling very good. I knew it wasn't a stupid catfish. I see my victim and thank god, it's a shark! Now since I'm fishing alone tonight, I didn't bring my new drop net. That would be extremely difficult with one person. But I did have my wire leader. My first attempt to hoist the shark up on the bridge didn't go so well. It didnt make it over the rail and luckily the shark was still on the hook. Second attempt was much better and successfully landed the shark. It came out to be a 31" Atlantic Sharpnose shark. I was going to eat the meat on top of keeping the jaws, but I didn't know you had to clean the fish immediatly after catch. I read that sharks get a really bad smell and taste in the meat if you don't bleed, gut, and filet the shark as quickly as possible. So the meat will probably be used as bait someday, and I'm currently in process of cleaning my first set of shark jaws. I'll post a photo when it's complete.

31" Atlantic Sharpnose Shark
Location: Flat Bridge (Port Orange)
Bait: cut ladyfish
Tackle: single strand wire leader - 8/0 Owners SSW Cutting Point Bait Hook