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.

Slow Morning @ CNS LOT 4

Invited my buddy Zack and neighbor Dave to join me Saturday morning at CNS. Woke up early before 5am and called up Dave to see if he was about ready. On the way I scooped up Zack and headed to the coast. Quick pitstop to the baitshop to load up on shrimp and ice. We finially parked at Lot 4 around 6:45am and hauled our gear to the beach. It's not so bad with my foldable beach cart that has balloon tires. It really floats on sand while hauling my cooler and tackle bag.
Upon arrival it was almost low tide and the waves were not big at all. We started with 4 rods with a mix of frozen sand flea and fresh dead shrimp. We quickly noticed the current was very strong which made it hard to fan out. The only weight that held were my 4oz spider weights, but I really don't like them. They hold good, but they make retrieval very difficult. Several times I picked up my rod after a bite and I felt the weight literally STUCK in the sand. I had to hold the drag and pull the weight out of the sand before reeling in. I kept switching back from pyramid to spider weights and back to pyramid, trying to find something that would work for us. I thought the current would slow down as the tide slacked, but I don't that even happened. Seemed like the current kept rolling the whole time. I think we only caught a couple croakers and catfish the whole day. It was pretty bad.
Towards the end of the trip after 9am, Zacks rod goes bizerk. The fight would continue to take line, just a constant drag singing. The drag was tightened down to try to turn the fish back towards us, because it was headed straight towards where several other surf fishermen were posted up. The fish was still really far out and I'm still not sure what the hell it was. But after several minutes, the rig popped. My pompano rigs are only 25lb test and the whole rig was gone. All that was left was the top barrel swivel of the rig. One of those fish you can't stop I guess. I don't think we would've had enough drag on my reel to pull it in anyway. Could've been a big stingray pulling away, but we like to presume otherwise. LOL
My friends said they had fun, even with the slow fishing day. I had fun too but definitly disappointed in the fishing. It could've been worse I guess, we could've got skunked completely. With no fish in the cooler after a long morning, we packed up and left after 10am.

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.