| December 27th
I arrived on December 27th and I got a message from Tom that
he headed out to a different spot to fish. I arrived at the condo and I opened
up all my new gear, which included: a Fin-Nor Offshore S95, 1500 yds of 65lb
PP, Shimano Stradic 8000FH, 500yds of 50lb PP, and a Tsunami Stand-Up Big
Game Rod 5’9 50-100lb. I wanted to change my gear a bit lol. I headed
out to the local tackle store to spool my reels. After I came back from the
tackle shop I called my buddy Howard and we headed over to the intercoastal.
We started casting for barracudas. I landed a nice one. Here’s a picture
of it:
We left shortly after catching the Cuda. I kept the Cuda for
shark bait. Howard gave me some catfish for shark bait and then drove me
home later. When I got home I started getting all my gear together to prepare
for the next morning. Howard was going to meet me at the beach in the morning.
December 28th
I got down at the beach at 6:30 in the morning. I threw out
a piece of squid on my bait rod and I threw out a piece of Cuda on my shark
rod. Howard arrived about 5 minutes after I threw out both rods. Howard threw
out and he saw a shark swim by the beach. About 5 minutes later my bait rod
went off really hard. I knew at that moment that a shark had grabbed it,
unless I had the sea monster of Blue Runners lol. I reeled it in quickly
and right when I had the shark by the rocks, the line went slack and I pulled
out a bloody Blue Runner head. The mono on the rig had been shredded. I threw
out the blue runner head on my shark rod and then threw out new pieces of
squid on my bait rod.
About 5 minutes later my bait rod goes off and I reeled in 2
Blue Runners. I threw out more squid on my bait rod and about 10 minutes
later is goes off again. When I got the Runner by the rocks a shark came
and attacked it. There was a big splash. Not a second later the line went
slack and I pulled in another Blue Runner head. I wish I had taken some pictures
of the Blue Runners. I called Tom and told him about all the action. I thought
for sure that it would be a good day this day.
Tom arrived and threw out. About 30 minutes after Tom threw
out my bait rod went off. I though for sure that it was going to be a Blue
Runner, but to my surprise it was a Guitar Fish. I would never have thought
that I would have caught that thing lol. Here is a picture of it:
After I caught the guitar fish, Howard left. Tom and I fished
until 4:30 and never had one run or even another fish hit the bait rod. The
sharks were everywhere in the morning, but they weren’t biting. I went
out with Howard that night to go Sharking. We never had one run.
December 29th
I got down to the beach and threw out the rods. I caught a couple
Blue Runners. The Sunrise was so beautiful, so I took a picture of it for
a girl. Thought I might share the picture:
Nothing much happened after I caught the two Blue Runners. I
had to leave the beach at 2:00p.m. to go to the Florida Panther hockey game.
I had to go to a mall with my family before the game and shop, which sucked.
We had tickets to the Platinum room, which has free drinks, all you can eat
food, massages, cigars, pretty much anything. The Panthers were playing against
the Montreal Canadians. The funny thing was that nearly ¾ of the arena
were Montreal Canadian fans. The crowd booed the Panthers when they stepped
on the ice. That was something I’ve never seen happen to a home team
in any sport. But the best thing was that the Panthers beat the Canadians
3-1, which was great to see all those Canadians fans walk out of the arena
upset lol.
December 30th
I slept in a little bit this morning and got down to the beach
at 7:00. I fished until like noon at the beach and never got a hit or a bite.
I decided to go to the intercoastal. I hooked up with a massive stingray.
It was probably 5ft in diameter and must have weighed over 200lbs. I fought
it for over 30 minutes. When I got it beside the wall there was no way of
getting it up. It eventually broke the line, but I did get a picture of it
in the water:
After I caught the stingray my back was hurting and I headed
back to the condo to rest. That night my dad, my brother and I went to a
restaurant to go watch UFC. I was upset when Tito lost to Liddell.
December 31st
I slept in really late this day. I didn’t get down to the
beach until 7:30. My buddy Eddie (airnuts) had three sharks on earlier. I
threw out and eventually Tom showed up. Eddie left to go on a cruise. Tom
and I fished until like noon and then we called it quits. We didn’t
even have one run. I headed over to the intercoastal after and I ended up
catching 5 decent sized Jacks. I forgot to take a picture of them and I really
regret not doing it. My family and I went to Palm Beach town center to celebrate
New Years. I didn’t get home til like 3.
January 1st
I got down at the beach late again. I threw out a piece of Jack
and nothing hit it. I quit around 2 and went to the intercoastal with Howard.
I caught a beautiful stingray. Here is a picture:
After I let the stingray go Howard noticed a large conch shell
moving in the water. I then noticed that it was a hermit crab, a really big
one. We got the casting net and tried to catch it. After about the tenth
try we caught the crab. I got a video of the crab and it’s pretty funny.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=wTyDOB-0tKs
After we threw the Crab back we headed back to Howard’s
place and got ready for shark fishing. We got down to the beach and I threw
out the head of one of the Jacks. Within 20 minutes my rod went off. I had
the shark on for about 20 seconds before it dropped the bait. I then put
the head on Howard’s rod and threw out a fresh piece of bait on mine.
After like 15 minutes Howard’s rod went off. I grabbed his rod and Howard
reeled in my rod. I had the shark on for about a minute. I thought he was
hooked for sure. Well he dropped the bait again. We reeled it in and the
head was still on there. We threw out the head again and within 20 minutes
the rod went off again. We didn’t even get the rod out of the holder
before the line went slack. We reeled it in and there was only a piece of
the head on it. After that we had no other runs.
January 2nd
I was on the beach at 6 this day. I caught one Blue Runner in
the morning and that was pretty much it for a while. I left the beach around
1:00p.m. and headed over to the intercoastal with my dad. I caught this weird
looking fish. Here’s a picture of it, Fish ID?
I also caught this Cuda:
My dad drove me back and I headed back down to the beach. I
saw my buddy Dan down there and he told me that he just had a shark on. I
threw out a piece of Jack and never got a run. I saw 6 sharks swim by. I
tried to grab one freestyle but it got away.
That night I went out with Howard again and my buddy Rob came
with us. We all threw out and we had a run within 30 minutes. It was a BT
and she jumped about 30 times. I got her in. She was around 6ft and was over
100lbs.
We threw out again. Howard’s rod went off within 10 minutes,
but the shark was off fast. He threw out again. Rob’s rod went off and
he began fighting the shark. This was his first time sharkin and he really
didn’t know what he was doing. The line on the spool was coming near
the end so I grabbed the rod and locked down on the bail. I had to hold the
line with my hands at one point. There must have only been at least 2 yards
of line left on the spool. I thought I was going to get spooled for sure.
I have over 400 yds of line on this reel too. I got s little bit of line
back and then handed the rod back to Rob. He fought it for a while.
The shark was swimming parallel to the beach. I ran down about
200 yards. We thought the shark might have caught the buoy that was down
at this end of the beach. When I got to where the shark was I saw him right
by the beach. I yelled at the top of my lungs for Rob and Howard to run down
here with the rod. They couldn’t hear me. They were just standing there.
I decided to land the shark. I grabbed the line and had the waves push the
shark in. When the shark was on the beach the line snapped. I went out to
grab him and I got him a good 5 feet up. He was well over 6ft and was heavy.
A big wave came in and put water up to my waist. The shark started to swim
away. I grabbed him one last time, but then decided to let go. I didn’t
want to risk getting bit.
We came back in disappointment. Rob was the only one excited.
I threw out his rod again. Within 10 minutes Howard’s rod went off again.
The shark was off quick. I moved my rod to another spot and well all I can
say is that I had 5 runs on it on another Jack head and lost everyone. I
was extremely upset later on. Howard’s rod went off again and I started
battling this shark. She was a very strong fighter. After about 30 minutes
we got her in. She was one of the fattest BT’s I’ve ever seen.
She was over 6ft and must have been pushing 150. I couldn’t pull the
shark up myself, I needed Rob’s help.
Here are some pix of her:
One fat-ass head!
Howard and me with the shark:
We packed everything up after catching this shark and called
it a night. I was still very upset about being 0-5 on my rod.
January 3rd
The next day I headed down to the beach at the usual time, 6:30.
I caught a Blue Runner. Nothing was hitting so I decided to go up to the
condo and catch up on my myspace and emails. I went for a beach walk with
my dad and my brother. I met a guy name Paul who was trying to catch sharks.
I talked to him for a bit and then told him to meet me in 30 minutes. I went
up to the condo and got my stuff and when I went down to the beach I noticed
that Paul had caught 2 Blue Runners. I threw out the head of one of the Runners.
Within 10 minutes the rod goes off. The shark jumped twice.
This video can explain the rest: http://youtube.com/watch?v=uhI4QujpZs0
Here are the pix:
Here’s the release video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=jjxBZ0NzPMo
After I caught this shark Howard and Rob showed up. We didn’t
get another run that night.
January 4th
The next morning I woke up and the waves were super rough. I
called up Howard and him and I decided to go and fish in the intercoastal.
I met a guy there who was fishing for Cudas. He turned out to be Pat Miletich.
Pat Miletich is a mixed martial arts fighter who has fought in the UFC, IFL
and other fighting organizations. He has his own camp, which is called the
Miletich Fighting Systems. Pat is one hell of a Cuda fisherman I can tell
you that, he taught me a bunch of stuff. He caught a nice Cuda:
He had several more Cudas on his line, but didn’t get them
in. One was really close. After that Pat left my mom called me and told me
Tom was on the beach. I went back to the condo and headed down to the beach.
Tom and I never had one run. It was pretty bad. Tom left around 4:30 and
after that I headed back up to the condo. I went out that night to go shark
fishing and was heart broken. While I was casting a shark bait out my pole
snapped in half. I had this Tica pole for 3 years, caught at least 100 sharks
on it, put it under lots of abuse, and just like that it snapped. I was even
mad, just in shock. It didn’t even break on the first cast, it broke
on the second cast. It broke right where you join the two pieces. I left
after that and went out to dinner with my family.
January 5th
I was done at the beach with Howard at around 6:30. The waves
were huge. One wave went over Howard’s head and he’s 6’1.
We never had a hit. We decided to go over to the intercoastal to fish. I
met up with Pat there. Pat told me he had one Cuda on and had a monster one
follow in his lure. I caught two Cudas within the first 20 casts:
I had one huge Cuda hit my lure. I thought I had him for sure,
but my drag didn’t seemed to be tight enough and the hook popped out
of his mouth. Later that day I met Pat over at the Jetties. We casted for
about an hour and a half before one of us caught a Cuda. Pat caught it. I
threw the Cuda out on my 9/0 to see if a shark would grab it, but no luck.
After a bit Pat and I went back to the intercoastal to throw a few more casts.
We have several hits, but no hook-ups. I went back to the condo knowing this
would be the last time I went fishing for a while.
- BTH
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