5 FT Sandbar Shark! Personal Best on my Birthday!

Yesterday (July 7th) was my birthday, so for my birthday I wanted to catch a shark! Accompanied by my buddy Zack, we left early and arrived just before dark. It was lowtide with a SW breeze, surf was less than 1.5 feet. We got lines in the water by 9PM. Sat down for 5 minutes I'd say, and BAM BAM, something had taken my bait already. It wasn't running just yet, I saw the bite and picked up the rod. I felt a shake shake motion so I reeled in the slack and set the hook. As soon as I set that hook it took several yards out for the first time. My drag is still loose at this point, so I'm figuring out the best drag pressure to fight this thing. I tighten tighten and now I start gaining some ground. It starts coming towards me and I'm pulling it in with the waves. It's pretty tired I think cause it wasn't swimming as hard anymore. Got the shark on the beach and immediately began the process of hook removal. Hook was deep into the jaw, couldn't get it out without ripping it's jaw off with pliers. So I called out for my bolt cutters. With ease I had the hook chopped in two pieces and the shark was free from the line. Measured it and it was exactly 5 feet long, my personal best and longest shark! I'm assuming it's another sandbar shark. My buddy was taking photos on his iphone while I released the shark. Pics came out a little blurry but thats okay. I have a short video that Zack recorded when I first beached the shark.

Midday Monday Surf Report! CNS 6/16/14

Took my 10 yr old boy for another beach trip to CNS. Arrived at the gates around 3pm and parked in lot #4. Not crowded at all at this point, I was the 3rd car in the parking lot. Got down to the beach and saw 1 ft surf if that. Outgoing tide. Sand fleas all over. Used my sons plastic shovel and was getting 2 or 3 decent sized fleas each scoop. But no hits on sand fleas today.

Setup the shark rod first with a chunk of lady fish that came from the flat bridge last year =) The other two rods were tied with a pompano rig using pieces of fresh dead shrimp. After getting all three rods in the water, one of the shrimp rods gets a bite and my son pulls in a ladyfish. Gave it a safe release. I was actually happy to see the ladyfish caught because that's what I'm using for shark bait, match the hatch you know.

So no more hits on shrimp. I mean zip nada none for 2 hours. The surf is dead when it comes to whiting and pomps...but check this out.... after about 30 minutes of soaking the chunk of ladyfish for shark I got a hit. I watched it hit...didn't take off like you would expect. Knowing something was messing with the bait I grabbed the rod, reeled in the slack, then felt pressure, followed by another shake. Set the hook and thats when the fish knew something wasn't right haha. It zipped out several yards like it was nothing. I'm just sitting there holding it as I'm adjusted my drag for fighting pressure. Only took 10 minutes to bring it on shore but I had just caught my first 4.5 ft shark! As soon as it was landed my priority was dehook, picture and then release as fast as possible without getting hurt. My son took several photos for me during the process so he gets credit too. It's my first Sandbar shark and also my largest shark landed to date.

Two Big Hits & Spooled Sharking @ Bethune Beach

Haven't been sharking on the beach in awhile so Zack and I decided to give it another go before it gets too cold. On the way we noticed lightning in the sky but it was further east and offshore. Upon arrival the winds were very calm so the bugs were out. Surf was 1 - 1.5 ft and it was high tide. I brought along some fresh bait that was actually caught by myself this week, crevalle jack and a ladyfish. My two 12' Beefstick rods were already rigged with a single strand wire leader thats about 100lb test. One reel is spooled with 40lb power pro braid and my large Fin Nor Offshore reel is spooled with about 300 yds of 100 lb test braid.

Setup pretty quick and cut some ladyfish to start the night off. We didn't go out too far to cast our lines, probably at the most knee deep. I used 5oz pyramids as weights and they seemed to hold really well. Now it was the waiting game. Two rods soaking and two friends just hanging out on the beach. After about 20 minutes my rod gets the hit. I get the rod in my hands and tighten the drag, the line is still coming off. I tighten down some more and feel something shake and go faster again. Line goes off and I'm still hanging on. It's something big. I hold the spool and I think it's turned around, I feel a shake and then dead slack. It's off! I reel in the slack and I'm missing my weight, so I know the wire didn't break. Turns out it broke at the 100lb braid line. I initially thought it was a tail slap that broke me off (sharks are known to easily snap lines with their tails). But when I looked at my reel I noticed alot of line missing, probably a good 60 yards. Not exactly sure what happened on that one and it took me a few minutes to gather myself after that one. Losing a fish to a broken line is sickening.

After taking a moment to think about what just happened, I decided to switch baits to a chunk of crevalle jack. I let that soak for about 30 minutes but nothing. After that I told Zack we should both reel in, rebait with chunk of ladyfish and give it one last cast before we head back home. So we did this and as soon as I sat in my chair, my Fin Nor reel goes berserk again. I didn't have a chance to put my pants back on over my swimming suit. I grab the rod and it's peeling line out at will. I tighten down the drag and basically hang on as my spool is getting smaller and smaller. It's hauling ass and I'm losing the battle quickly. A couple times I tried to hold the spool briefly to stop the fish in it's tracks, but as soon as it felt me trying to pull it back, it gave a shake and moved even faster the other way. Now my spool is getting down to the danger zone with less than 100 yards remaining. Still...the fish never stopped. Not even for a second to let me gain any ground on it. At this time I knew I was getting spooled and there's no way I'm getting a chance to see this monster. Still going!! I saw the yellow braid disappear off my reel like it was nothing...and now I'm down to the mono backing which is only 30 lb test. It continued to roll off the mono as well, then SNAP! the mono finially gave out. Fight was over and I was done for the night. My reel was bare, only a few yards left of mono backing. I've never felt the power of a fish that big. I don't think my reel and gear is even capable of bringing in a beast of that caliber. It's just one of those things I couldn't do anything but hang on. Plus I didn't even have a fighting belt, so the butt of the rod was buried in my hip leaving me with a nice bruise. After a night like this, it sure makes me rethink my strategy for sharking. Unfortunately for Zack, he was left wondering why he didn't get a hit the whole night using the same bait I'm using. Thats fishing my friend.

Saturday Night Sharkin' - Bethune Beach

Another night trip to Bethune Beach with Zack. We arrived before midnight and setup two rods, both baited with cut crevalle jack. The action was very slow most of the evening, in fact, only a few small bites but nothing was hooking. I didn't catch anything but my friend Zack caught another 3' Atlantic Sharpnose shark at the end of the night. The fight was disappointing though, it really didn't fight at all. It pretty much came in without any aggresive runs. The shark swallowed the hook and was already bleeding out when it came on the beach. So I began the process of cutting and gutting the shark for the cooler. We had to packup to ice down the shark so we ended up leaving a little earlier than planned. Here's Zacks shark on the beach...

Wednesday Night Shark! 37" Atlantic Sharpnose

Took my two friends Kyle and Zack to the Bethune Beach last night and had a blast again! Armed with ladyfish, each of us had a chance at a toothy shark tonight. The first hit came on Kyle's rod but it didn't stick to the hook. It quickly came off after a brief battle. Next turn was Zack. He had just casted and was about to put his pants back on...wait wait...let me explain this. We typically wear long pants and shoes on the beach at night because of the no-see-ums and mesquitos. They can be really annoying and uncomfortable during the summer. So everytime we cast our lines out, we take off our pants leaving our boardshorts on so we can get wet. Once the rod is set in the sand spike, we dry our legs off to put the long pants back on. You have to keep exposed skin to a minimum during the summer nights in Florida. =)

So back to the story, as I was saying it was Zacks turn. He had just casted his line out and dried off. As he was putting his pants on, his rod gets a bend. This is the crucial moment where you have to rush to the rod. Needless to say, Zack was a little delayed in getting to the rod with his pants around his ankles haha. The bite didn't stick unfortunately and the fish was gone.
And finially, it was my turn. My rod gets a good lick and I immediately feel the battle. During retrieve it tangles lines with another rod, but I still successfully got it in. It was a 37" Atlantic Sharpnose shark! And to top it off, Zack and Kyle untangled the lines without cutting anything off. It took them a good 10-15 minutes, but they got it figured out.

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

Night Shark Fishing - 3 FT Shark and NESTING SEA TURTLE

Hit the beach for some night surf fishing last night, same spot near Bethune Beach park. My friend Zack joined me on the trip. At arrival it was a low tide with no wind. The no-see-ums were really bad though. Unfortunately I had only worn a short sleeve shirt and my boardshorts, so I had alot of exposed skin for the no-see-ums to bite. And that they did. Only a few bites on my arms but most of the bites came near my feet for some reason. 40% DEET wouldn't even keep those buggers off me. As long as I kept moving or walking, the bugs wouldn't bother me. As soon as I sat down or stood still, you'd notice the bugs swarming around you. It was annoying for sure. But on to the fishing report !

So we started off with cut ladyfish again and soaked two rods. We used my standard single strand wire leaders with an 8/0 Owners circle hook. Zack was in charge of my white 10' tundra surf rod and I claimed my black 12' beefstick. After a good soak, my 12' rod goes off. I grab it and battle the fish to the shore. It wasn't a great fight but it wasn't bad either. The battle only lasted a few minutes before I got the shark on the beach, it was a 37.5" Atlantic Sharpnose Shark! My first 3 footer that I've caught from the beach. It was a pretty exhilerating moment for me.

Then not long after we catch this shark, we notice something out in the distance along the shoreline. Since it was dark, all we could see was a big shadow and it looked like something had washed up on the beach. We walked closer to investigate and confirmed it was a nesting sea turtle that was coming up on the beach to lay her eggs. So Awesome! I've never witnessed this before, but I also knew we couldn't bother her. So after a quick picture from a distance, we turned around and headed back to camp. From our fishing spot, I could still see the sea turtle continue to slowly move up on the beach.

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!

Bethune Beach Night Sharking - 37" Atlantic Sharpnose

Lately I've been studying night shark fishing more thorough, especially on the surf zone. I learned though without a kayak, we won't be able to deploy our baits very far. It basically comes down to how far we can cast, which isn't easy with bigger heavier baits. I purchased a new 12' surf rod to help with distance a little bit.
For lighting, I have some old headlamps that I used to wear on the St Johns River while catfishing at night. I also have some glow rod tips for bite detection. The glowsticks are definitly something I'll bring on every night surf fishing trip. They make it easy to see the rod tip action while the bait is soaking in the water.

Overall I'm still learning the ropes on night shark fishing. I've been to the beach at night twice before and didn't have any luck. Last night I took my neighbor, Steve, out to the same spot for a third attempt. I actually fished this spot twice before with my friend Zack but we didn't have any luck. Probably due to lack of propper bait deployment, I was using really long 4' mono leaders that were more difficult to cast. I've since changed back to using about a 14-16" sections of single strand wire. It paid off because we got two hits tonight using wire rigs. The first hit was on a ladyfish head. I felt the fish running and it actually pulled a little drag but then all of a sudden it was gone. After retrieving the line I noticed my hook was bare. My best guess is the bait wasn't all the way in the mouth and I just pulled the hook out.
The second hit was on Steve's side, he was using my 10' Okuma Tundra rod. The bait was the tail section of a ladyfish. The fish was on and Steve reeled it in pretty good. Once he got them to the shoreline and I could see it was a shark. It was actually a 37" Atlantic Sharpnose shark, the biggest shark I've seen landed so far from me and my fishing buddies. Steve wanted to keep the shark to give the meat to his boss. As a nice gesture, he let me keep the jaws from the shark. Here's the finished shark jaws, they are about 4.5" long! I didn't get a picture of the shark because my iphone completely died while we were fishing on the beach.

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 Slam! Small Hammerhead Shark!

Hit the flat bridge at night again. Used some frozen ladyfish as cutbait and caught a nice variety. First fish of the night was a small Hammerhead shark that was no bigger than 15" long. Gave him a quick release back in the water so one day this little guy will hopefully grow to be a 12' tarpon eating machine.
Next fish was a small hardhead catfish. Then 15 minutes later I got another good hit and came to be a bluefish. All fish were caught within 45 minutes.

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

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!

Thursday Night 4/18 - P.O. Flat Bridge

Took my neighbor and his friend out fishing last night to the flat bridge. These guys have never been fishing with me, so I had to show them a few techniques I use to catch em on the bridge. As soon as we arrived and walked out to our spot, you could feel the strong winds gusting in our faces. The wind was just too strong to throw a jig so I put those rods to the side. The only option at this point was using cutbait, which I brought some frozen ladyfish. Diced up some chunks and stuck them on some 5/0 circle hooks on three seperate rods. We were getting steady bites, some were actually moving the rod pretty good. Nothing was getting hooked though. My neighbors friend notices a tap and starts reeling in, we notice that he's tangled with our lines somehow. As he's reeling he says there's a fish on the other end, the whole time he's still tangled with other lines. We get one line free so now it's just two rods tangled. He gets the fish up to the surface and it was a nice shark! Probably about 2.5ft long. So now comes the moment of truth, getting the shark up on the bridge. Well, we got it about 2 feet above water and it decides to shake. We tried to lower it back in the water to relieve some of the tension, but it was too late. The teeth had sliced the line at the hook and the shark was gone. It was still a nice shark, I just wish I had a picture of it to share. Oh well thats fishing. We fished for awhile longer but that was the only fish of the night.

1st Hammerhead! Flat Bridge Thursday Night

Fished the flat bridge Thursday night for a couple hours by myself. The tide was incoming and almost slack tide. I brought some frozen ladyfish for chunking and frozen lightly salted shrimp. The salt definitly helps to keep the shrimp firm so they stay on the hook better. The fish didn't seem to care either.

Casted one rod with a chunk of ladyfish and noticed immediate taps. The taps were like something small had found a chunk that was too big for it's mouth. I waited for something to actually take the bait and bend the rod. It finially looked like something bigger was interested in the bait and possibly already hooked himself, so I grabbed the rod and fish on! I felt the power of a strong fish, this definitly wasn't a catfish. As I'm reeling, it made a couple 2-3 second bursts that took some line out. And after a brief fight, I had caught my first Hammerhead Shark! This one was 28" long too, which makes it the longest shark species I've caught so far. I've caught a few of those Bonnetheads, but it was cool to actually say I caught a hammerhead. All Hammerhead sharks are protected in Florida state waters, effective January 1st, 2012, so possession and harvest is prohibited. With that said it was safely released back in the water, I did take a quick picture though.

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

Port Orange Flat Bridge - Monday Night

Me and two friends Zack and Kyle headed out to do some saltwater fishing Monday night. We arrived at the baitshop 5 minutes before they closed at 9pm. Hey everyone does it! Anyway we got our 3 dozen shrimp and drove 1/4 mile down the road to the North Causeway. Man this place was packed with people. Several cars in the parking lot as well. So immediately we decided this place was a no go. It was then I decided to take the 15-20 minute drive to Port Orange. I've been hearing good reports coming from a flat bridge and tonight would be my first time fishing there. Parked next to the bridge and not surprised to see most of our shrimp have died by now LOL. Oh well fresh dead shrimp works too. We fished with my two hook pompano surf rigs. I just hooked a whole shrimp on each hook and dropped the rig straight down.

Kyle drew first blood tonight when he caught a small sailfin catfish. Then Kyle caught a nice 1.5 to 2 foot Bonnethead Shark. Very cool! Then Kyle hooked into a beast that took him for a ride. The fight looked intense, I could see Kyle struggling to control the fish. It was darting left and right rapidly and also making 3 leaps out of the water. It was really awesome! It all happened so fast I couldn't tell what it was until he got it underneath us. As we're looking down we definitly could see it's a manta ray of some sort. The description and behavior all leads me to think it's a Devil Ray. We didn't raise this one up on the bridge, instead it shook off the hook and got away safely. After that Zack caught a nice size Lady Fish. And then finially I caught something, but it was a smaller lady fish. That was it for the night, we probably fished for another hour without seeing another fish. Great night for the guys and it was cool to see a variety of fish for once.

CNS #3 - First Shark! Surf Grand Slam

Today was Cody's 8th birthday and I had the day off work so I thought it would be nice to take him to the beach. Decided to visit lot #3 at CNS again. Arrived around 11am and caught the incoming tide for a couple hours. The surf was very calm, I think they said 1 ft swells for today. I used 2-hook pompano rigs on 2 poles, baited with fresh dead shrimp.
The first catch of the day was my first shark!! I think I identified it as a juvenile Altantic Sharpnose shark. It was about 16-18" long, never measured it. Doh! Got on a few whiting and croakers after that. Tide was moving up fast so I had to keep pushing my sand spikes back. The last few casts I was getting nothing but small catfish so decided to head home. Everything was released except for the ladyfish which I'm going to freeze for cutbait. Total tally today was 13 fish! Everything caught on shrimp.

1 Atlantic Sharpnose Shark
1 Ladyfish
2 Whiting
2 Pinfish
2 Croakers
2 Sailfin Catfish
2 Hardhead Catfish
1 Spot