Bonnethead Sharks at CNS #3 - 4/28

After dropping off my son to school on Monday and having the day off work, I took the drive to CNS for some surf fishing. Arrived at Lot 3 and there were a few others already fishing. For bait today I used fresh dead shrimp tipped with shrimp fishbites. Ended up catching 3 small bonnethead sharks. Also had a double with two pigfish. Not sure where all the good fish went. Usually when you get into a mess of small sharks it's not looking good for anything else.

Personal Best Bonnethead Shark!!

My son and I were invited to spend the day with my neighbor, Dave, and his kids at the beach. It was Daves' birthday and he wanted to take the kids to the beach and fish. The plan was for the dads to leave early morning and then the wife would bring the kids later in the morning. So Dave and I left about 7:30am and arrived at his sisters condo near Bethune Beach. A great place with a nice double decker patio. The top deck has a nice view of the beach!
My buddy Zack met us at the condo later on and after hanging out for awhile we decided it was time to get the lines wet. Unloaded everything and setup on the water. For bait I brought frozen shrimp, frozen ladyfish and bluefish. Most of us used the shrimp and had little success. I think Dave and Zack eventually tried cutbait but no hits. The fishing was really slow to say the least.
The kids arrived later in the morning and were ready to splash around. We let them play close to shore in the water as we continued to fish. I finially got a good run on a piece of shrimp. It was a good fighter and I had to manuever it up and under some lines still in the water. I'm not one to brag but I dominated this fight! LOL

Got it up on the beach and saw it was a big bonnethead shark, my personal best by far. I'd say about 3' long, unfortunately I didn't measure it. I was more worried about getting it back in the water quickly so it would survive a release. I took the hook out, posed for a few photos, showed it to the kids and they watched as I put it back in the water.

SHARK WEEK! Surf Fishing Report

Well it's been a busy month for me. I was out of town from July 12-22 on a family vacation to Indiana. When I came back I had to get back on the water. And that I did. This week I went night shark fishing twice at Bethune Beach. The surf is the calmest I've seen in a long time on the Atlantic side. Swells are 1 ft or less, and the current is not strong. I'm able to hold with a 3 oz pyramid. The first night, it was just me and Zack, and I hooked into a big one. It took me awhile to get it close, and it got stuck on a far sandbar during the fight. Finially got it close enough to see and could definitly tell it was the biggest shark I've caught from the beach. Probably about 4-5 feet long all together, we didn't know how to land this shark without getting hurt or breaking the line. I think we were more concerned about breaking the line and losing the shark. I played with it along the shoreline as we tried to persuade one another to get in the water and grab it's tail LOL. Hey you can't blame us for being nervous about grabbing a shark by it's tail. Plus it wasn't exactly beached either, the water was shallow but deep enough for it to swim if it really wanted to. I finially worked it up close, and Zack grabbed the tail and tried to pull it back fast. The shark tried to whip it's head side to side so Zack let go, and just at that moment a wave came up on the beach. Just enough to pull the shark back in the water LOL. During this event the hook came off and we watched the shark swim away towards deeper water. It was gone. No pictures and no measurements, but a hell of a catch for me. The score is 0-1 on sharks this week so far.

A few nights later I took my friends Zack and Kyle with me to the same spot at night. We had a late start this time, probably got setup with lines in the water near midnight. Zack got the first hit but only lasted about 2 seconds. The baitrunner drag was pulling fast on the initial hit, then snap the 40lb mainline broke. Seemed odd at the time but now that I think about it, I believe it was a big shark that just happened to tail slap the line as it was briefly running off with the hook.
Score 0-2
The next hit was for my friend Kyle on the 10' pole. He fought the fish and it seemed good size from what I saw. I'm not sure what happened but the line broke on this one too. The whole rig gone again.
Score 0-3
A little bit later it's my turn, I get the hit on my 12' pole. I'm reeling in a good fighter and get it up to the shore without much difficultly. I see it's a shark and about 3' long. It's still in the water and I thought Kyle was going to grab it. But the shark freaks out and spits the hook, then shark goes bye bye. haha Oh well, I still had alot of fun and it was a very active night. But the score is now 0-4.

It was after these two nights that I realized I need to upgrade my shark gear, mostly just the mainline on my reels. I'm currently fishing with 40 lb braided line with 100 lb wire leaders. The wire leaders aren't breaking, it's just the 40 lb braided line. So within the next few weeks I'm planning on respooling my bigger reels to 100 lb powerpro braid. I'm also looking at adding a new reel, the one I'm interested in is the Fin Nor Offshore series 8500. With this reel, I could spool it with 500 yds of 100 lb braid. Wow! Plus it has max 60 lb drag pressure, which is almost 3x what my other reels are capable of.

CNS #4 - 3 Pompano, Small Sharks and a BENT HOOK!

Monday morning I woke up and headed out to the usual spot at CNS. First stopped by End of the Line baitshop for the shrimp and ice. Arrived at Lot 4 around 6:00am and found nobody else in the parking lot. In fact, I was the only one fishing lot 4 for a good 4 hours! So I setup my two rods and immediately noticed a strong North current which made my day that much longer. I basically fished my longest 12' pole for most of the time until the tide had moved all the way up. At least the 12' was holding better than the 10'. Once the current slowed, I was able to hold with 4oz pyramid weights on both rods.
The morning started off slow because of the current troubles, I managed a small whiting and some catfish. Then I got my first pompano at 11" to the fork using a piece of shrimp.
I brought my sand flea rake and found 6 usable sand fleas the entire time. I caught another 11" pompano on shrimp and then baited with sand fleas, next cast got another 11" pompano. I had to find a couple more sand fleas so I used shrimp in the meantime, thats when I caught some baby sharks and other small fish. I caught 2 baby sharpnose and a croaker. Found a couple more sand fleas and caught another small bonnethead. Finished the morning with shrimp and had a massive run. I picked up my rod and the drag was rolling off really fast. It made a few stops and I thought I was gaining ground but it continued to take line at will. So I tightened the drag a little and this mistake cost me the fish. I noticed the fish pop off shortly after the drag adjustment, and I reeled in a BENT HOOK! My first bent hook actually, this has never happened to me before. The hook was an Owners Light Mutu #2. I'm not sure if I would've landed it anyway since I had small light hooks with 25lb test leader line. Ended the day at about 10:00am after catching a small bonnethead on shrimp.

Another good day on the water considering the variety of fish and numbers. I caught about 15 fish and only took home the 3 pompano which are now one of my favorite surf fish to eat.
3 Pompano (all 11" to the fork)
3 small Whiting
2 small Bonnethead sharks
2 small Sharpnose sharks
4 Catfish
Croaker

CNS 4 GRAND SLAM - Pompano, Personal Best 17" Whiting, more!

Planned an early morning to CNS on Saturday since I had the day off work and it paid off in a big way. I arrived about 6:15am and fished for about 3 hours. The tide was high and the waves were calm, no more than 1.5' surf. Only one other fisherman until about 7:30 then people started filing in. I saw a couple of guys fishing with 6 rods between the two of them. I was like, whoa, bit of an overkill!
I only fished two rods with fresh dead shrimp and I caught fish after fish for the first 2 hours between 6am and 8am. With several dolphin out in the distance, I knew there were fish around. Rule of thumb: where there's dolphin, there's fish.

For starters, I caught 2 Pompano (13" and 11"). Good to see the pompano still hanging around! The whiting also showed up today and I'm glad they did. I caught 5 whiting all together and kept 3 of the bigger ones. In fact, I caught my personal best whiting today that measured 17.25" long!

Hooked a small Bonnethead that I released back. Also hooked into a stingray that gave me a rush, the fight on that was pretty fun. I caught a few small Crevalle Jacks that I'm keeping for shark bait. Also caught a few Blue Runners which is rare for me. I kept them for bait too. I just put each one into quart size freezer bags. I freeze them whole to keep in all the blood and guts.

Today was an EPIC day on the surf, probably one of the best mornings I've experienced at CNS. I caught 15 fish of 7 different species! You can't beat that.

1 Bonnethead Shark
1 Stingray
2 Pompano (13" and 11")
2 small Crevalle Jacks
2 Blue Runners
2 Sail Catfish
5 Whiting

Saturday Morning CNS - Personal Best Pompano!

I didn't have to be in at work until 11am so I seized the opportunity to fish the early morning at the beach. I left my house about 5:15am and picked up some dozen shrimp and a bag of ice from End of the Line baitshop in New Smyrna. Arrived to CNS about 6:30 and parked in lot 4. For a Saturday, I was surprised to find I was the only person fishing, but it was still early. I set my gear and immediately started fishing. Whole shrimp wasn't getting any hits so I pretty much used clams. I caught about 8 whiting, 4 of which I kept in the cooler. The bite slowed and I couldn't even get a hit on clam. I decided to switch it up and instead of using a whole shrimp on each hook, I took 1 shrimp and ripped the head off. Baited the top hook with a shrimp head and the bottom hook with a shrimp body, this idea seemed to work!
I caught a small Bonnethead shark and then I caught my personal best Pompano. It measured 14.5" to the fork, my previous best was only 13" to the fork. That was it for the day, I took home the big pompano and the 4 whiting for dinner. Very good!

Sunrise CNS lot #4 - Small Sharks and Pompano

Decided to try surf fishing at sunrise this morning. I've never fished the beach this early in the morning before so I was curious to see how the fish bite at first light. Arrived at Lot 4 around 6:30am and found nobody at lot 4. Good sign! The surf was 1-2 ft with a moderate current to the north. Winds were not an issue today at all. I'm thinking so far everything is adding up to a good day fishing. Even though nobody was in the parking lot, I still rushed to get out on the beach, almost running with my beach cart. I claimed my spot right in front of the boardwalk and proceeded to anchor my two sand spikes. My two rods are the 10' Okuma ABF-65 and my newest addition a 12' beefstick with an Okuma Trio-BF-65 reel. I had an arsenal of bait this morning with frozen sandfleas I bought earlier this year and fresh dead shrimp from End of the Line baitshop.

The first hit didn't take long and it came on the 12' with shrimp. I reeled in a double actually, a croaker and a small pompano. Both got a release back in the water. Next hit came on the 12' again this time with sandfleas. It was a small bonnethead shark, another safe release. Switched back to shrimp because I wasn't getting anything else on sandfleas. The shrimp worked much better. I ended up catching 4 small Atlantic Sharpnose sharks, 2 small catfish, 1 sail catfish, a just legal pompano, and another small croaker.

Everything got a release except for the slot pompano which went home on ice. The fishing was steady early then died off as 9:00am rolled around. Very happy with the results and variety of fish. Overall I caught 12 fish of 6 different species! It was also cool to catch 5 little baby sharks, thats a first for me.

Flat Bridge 4/23 Night Fishing - Zacks Big Shark!

Me and Zack hit the bridge with the usual bait...frozen ladyfish and plastic jigs. The ladyfish were thick, I could see them busting the bait on the water surface all near the bridge. Looked like they were after the river shrimp that were running. Once in awhile you could see a live shrimp skipping along the surface trying to get away from predators below.

At around 12:20 AM, Zack gets a solid hit on his chunk of ladyfish. His drag is singing and both of us have that "oh shit" feeling that something big is on the hook. Took about 10 minutes to get it close, the last 5 minutes I'm recording a video of Zack reeling away. I'm kinda coaching him along too, basically telling him to let the fish run if it wants to run. Zack dominated the reel and took his time only reeling when the fish stopped running. So it's been about 10 minutes and we first see a glob of seaweed hanging from his line, which confused me at first cause I see his weight hanging on the line too. I'm like, where's the fish? First glance of the fish eventually and I saw a nice dorsal fin, then I get a glance of it's nose and I see the tell tale shovel face...it's a large Bonnethead shark! This one we didn't try to lift, cause I remembered what happened last time I tried that (see previous post). Anyway, we directed it towards the shore where there's alot of rocks but I thought maybe we could steer it in then grab it. Well, my plan didn't work out so well. Zack was still on the bridge holding his rod with the shark on, and I'm down under the brige with the fishgrips. Zack tries to steer it around the rocky shore, and somehow the hook pops off. Bye bye sharky lol. Well I'm happy the shark as released quickly but I definitly wanted a few measurements and an upclose picture. No choice but to estimate the length at this point, which I had several good looks at it. So I'll estimate it at least 3' long from nose to tip of tail.


Awhile later Zack gets another hit on the cutbait but it's only a small hardhead catfish. I finially get a good lick on my cutbait rod, and the fight was pretty good too. But mine ended up being a medium sized sailfin catfish.

We continued to jig and were productive with the Gulp brand. Zack caught a small panfish sized crevalle jack, a nice 15" fork bluefish, and a couple ladyfish. I found the Gulp Mantis Shrimp in New Penny to be deadly on the ladyfish. I was getting hits on every cast, I probably caught a half dozen and jumped way more. A slow retrieve with an occasional twitch seemed to draw the bites in. Keeping them on the hook is the trick. They often unbutton from the hook very quickly. I took home about 7-8 ladyfish for freezing bait. I also took home the small jack and the bluefish for bait. What I do is cut off the tails and just freeze the fish whole in a gallon-sized freezer bag. I cut the tails off so they'd fit in the ziplock bags easier. It works really well!

Flat Bridge Friday Afternoon - Bonnethead Slam!

When I got off work around 1:30pm today, I decided to try fishing the flat bridge during sun-down hours/early evening. I got on my computer real quick to check the weather forecast, tide chart, and to find a baitshop closer to the flat bridge in Port Orange. The only other baitshop I knew of was 38 Live Bait in New Smyrna. It didn't take long to find one in Port Orange, and it was surprisingly close to the flat bridge. It's called Donald's Bait & Tackle on Dunlawton Avenue. Their live shrimp come in mixed sizes, about a dozen for $3.50. A little expensive but what can ya do. I think the medium shrimp at 38 Live Bait are only $2.50 a dozen.

So I get there around 5PM and setup my two rods. One rig was a 2-hook pompano rig and another was just a single 3/0 hook. After about 20 minutes I catch my first 22" Bonnethead Shark just underneath the bridge. I got a few pinfish during the next 90 minutes or so. It wasn't until after 7PM when I started reeling in the fish, I mean sharks. In about an hour I caught 3 more bonnethead sharks. All were out as far as I could cast with my 7ft rod and a 1 oz weight. A guy fishing down the bridge from me caught a nice 2-3 ft Hammerhead Shark during this timeframe too. All together I got four bonnetheads on live shrimp today.

22" Bonnethead Shark
22" Bonnethead Shark
21" Bonnethead Shark
20" Bonnethead Shark