I was invited to fish with Jeff Boyd on his boat “Just Hammered” last Saturday and something really fun happened. We launched the boat at 7 am and made bait with Pacific Mackerel and Bonefish in about 30 feet of water, not far offshore from the Malecόn. We cruised south to the deep reefs and set up to drift along the edge of a reef with live bait in 230’ of water. After my rig reached bottom, I started watching the sonar and could see a mass of fish suspended about 30 feet off the bottom. I reeled up and got a bite right away, but missed it. I was pretty sure that I had lost my bait, so I started to reel in. After about 50’ or so I started to get another bite, but it felt odd, like the fish was biting my sinker and not the hook. Anyway, I rebaited with a mackerel and dropped down again. As soon as my line reached bottom I felt a bite, set the hook, and found myself tied up to a huge fish. It took off on a long run and I could only watch as the line peeled off of my reel. Once in a while the fish would stop and I would start to exert pressure without breaking the 80 pound test line. For the longest time the fish and I were at stalemate with arched rod and strained line. Nothing much was happening, so I slowly worked up towards the bow of the boat. After about 30 minutes the fish started to slowly rise to the surface. The guys and I tried guessing what it could be. The general consensus was that it had to be a 100+ pound Black Sea Bass, but I was holding out hope that it was a big Gulf Grouper. We were all excited to have a big fish to add to the fish box. As the fish grew closer, we could finally start to see color and knew it was a big fish. At first it just looked long and white, but then we could make out a long tail and knew it was a shark. The shark briefly broke the surface of the water, turned hard, and broke the mono leader. We couldn’t tell what kind of shark it was, but it looked to be about 6 or 7 feet long. All I could think was how happy I was to at least see the fish before it got away. My arms were shaking and my back was sore.
We repositioned the boat for another drift while I retied a new hook. As my line dropped over the reef, I wondered if the shark would stick around and bite again. Within seconds I was hooked up again with another huge fish. This one didn’t strip line like the last one, and was just very heavy and stuck on the bottom. Surely this must be a grouper. About 30 minutes later my muscles were burning and the fish was starting to rise. Jeff got his GoPro ready to film. We could see color and could just start to make out a big fish, but what was it this time. It was another shark. This time I brought the shark right up to the boat and Jeff filmed it. Steve joked that at any minute the shark would turn and make a run for it and my line would snap back and hit me in the face, and it practically did. We had every intention of releasing the shark anyway and it was awesome to get it on video. This time we could see that it was a Black Tip Shark.
Nearly the same thing happened about 10 more times that day. I had one more shark up close to the boat, and 3 others break off deeper in the water column. Steve and Jeff also had sharks break their lines and had another one chase the bait right up to the boat. Although I had never hooked a shark at this reef before, for one reason or another it was swarming with them that day. We moved the boat around to see if we could catch something other than sharks and eventually caught 5 Leopard Grouper and a mixed bag of Goldspotted Bass, Orangemouth Corvina, and Croakers.
We didn’t fill the boat with fish, but it was maybe one of the most memorable days of fishing ever. Later that night, Dave Roberts arranged to have grouper and corvina prepared in a fisherman’s platter, with fish prepared 5 different ways and served at Al Capone’s Seafood and Pizza Restaurant. The fish was amazing - the best I’ve ever tasted. The only photo I have is of the dinner and a few stock photos of Black Tip Sharks for reference. Check out the video on YouTube "Shawno's Shark" http://youtu.be/M8wwpRReXtE
We repositioned the boat for another drift while I retied a new hook. As my line dropped over the reef, I wondered if the shark would stick around and bite again. Within seconds I was hooked up again with another huge fish. This one didn’t strip line like the last one, and was just very heavy and stuck on the bottom. Surely this must be a grouper. About 30 minutes later my muscles were burning and the fish was starting to rise. Jeff got his GoPro ready to film. We could see color and could just start to make out a big fish, but what was it this time. It was another shark. This time I brought the shark right up to the boat and Jeff filmed it. Steve joked that at any minute the shark would turn and make a run for it and my line would snap back and hit me in the face, and it practically did. We had every intention of releasing the shark anyway and it was awesome to get it on video. This time we could see that it was a Black Tip Shark.
Nearly the same thing happened about 10 more times that day. I had one more shark up close to the boat, and 3 others break off deeper in the water column. Steve and Jeff also had sharks break their lines and had another one chase the bait right up to the boat. Although I had never hooked a shark at this reef before, for one reason or another it was swarming with them that day. We moved the boat around to see if we could catch something other than sharks and eventually caught 5 Leopard Grouper and a mixed bag of Goldspotted Bass, Orangemouth Corvina, and Croakers.
We didn’t fill the boat with fish, but it was maybe one of the most memorable days of fishing ever. Later that night, Dave Roberts arranged to have grouper and corvina prepared in a fisherman’s platter, with fish prepared 5 different ways and served at Al Capone’s Seafood and Pizza Restaurant. The fish was amazing - the best I’ve ever tasted. The only photo I have is of the dinner and a few stock photos of Black Tip Sharks for reference. Check out the video on YouTube "Shawno's Shark" http://youtu.be/M8wwpRReXtE
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