Fishing Report -- 03-19-13

It was a full boat today, Scott and the three young lads Davis, Drew and Braxton were onboard for a day of pulling on the sharks. I had an idea of how the day was going to go when one of the first things they asked me was what the boat record was for the most number of landed Spinner Sharks in a day. The number is 11 and has occurred twice, once by a single angler and then also with a group of 3 anglers. It’s great to see anglers who are really excited about the day and they had their sights firmly set on trying to beat the record. After catching some fresh bait it was time to enter the Shark Zone. Davis was up first on the rod. Soon enough he was hooked up and off to the races. It was a typical first Spinner Shark experience. I tell all my anglers who are fishing for these Spinner Sharks for the first time to be prepared for a bit of a shock as to how athletic these sharks are and how hard they fight for their size. All these guys have caught big fish in the past so they are not new to the game but had to admit that these sharks are formidable adversaries. The good news is that with shark number two and three it gets easier and easier as you figure out how they are going to behave and how and when to pull on them. After much huffing and puffing the first shark of the trip was landed and released. Next was Drew, he too quickly developed a respect for these fish’s fighting ability. Drew persisted and boated his first shark too. Next was Braxton. This is when Murphy decided to show up. This happens quite often when everything that can go wrong seems to go wrong to the same person. First fish Braxton hooked was a jumper and three jumps in the wire broke. Next fish was a jumper too with the same result. Third fish the hook bent out and so it went on, Sharks 5, Braxton 0. None of these lost fish were a direct result of anything Braxton did, he did everything correct, just bad luck. Scott took the rod in an attempt to break the streak of Braxtonitis. Scott’s fish was a nice big one but right at the boat made last minute run under the boat and found the trim tab to rub the line against. The trim tab always wins that battle. We had touched the leader just before that so Murphy had to move over a little bit as it was a caught but not landed fish. Davis and Drew then landed another fish each and gave the rod to their friend to see if his Braxtonitis condition was still affecting him. This time Braxton hooked by far the toughest fighting fish of the day and it took a tag team effort with Davis to land it. Scott finished the day off with a nice big shark to the boat. The tally was 7 landed and more than that hooked up and lost. The boat record is still intact but a very respectable run at the record was waged.       

                

For more info. on TKF Charters click this link to my website www.tkfcharters.com
To see Fishing Reports prior to 2012 click  www.tkfcharters.com/reports/reports.php

Fishing Report -- 03-08-13

The best way to summarize this trip is to title it “Shark on fly – the Hard Way!”. Today with Doug was fly only with the mission of getting some Spinner Sharks. Big waves were the killer. A font had just moved through and although the wind was blowing strong it was NW, still doable in the ocean however there were big waves breaking forcing us to keep our distance from the beach. The sharks were in tight to the beach and were not coming out to play. Disappointed with the shark thing we hit a few deeper spots with less than spectacular results. Doug did however manage some Lesser Amberjacks, Sea Bass, Bullet Bonito and Blue Runners. Late afternoon the swell laid down just enough for us to get close enough to the beach to get the sharks interested in our chum. To add insult to injury when we finally got some bites Murphy had to show up. First hooked fish resulted in a broken fly line, looks like another shark may have bitten it. The second resulted in a bent hook while the fish was running (weird as it’s pretty hard to bend a 7/0 Owner hook with a fly rod). The third hookup however resulted in a landed shark. Kudos to Doug for hanging in there till it finally happened. It was a brutal day on the water. The bright side is that the day before we didn’t think we’d even be able to get into the ocean, so I suppose sharks the hard way is better than no sharks at all.   

                          

For more info. on TKF Charters click this link to my website www.tkfcharters.com
To see Fishing Reports prior to 2012 click  www.tkfcharters.com/reports/reports.php

Fishing Report -- 03-05-13

Today was Ladies Day. Sarah, Sarah (no that is not a typo) and Olivia joined me for a morning’s fishing. They are here on Spring Break and did they luck out with spectacular weather, as good as it gets for this time of year. It was sunny, the wind was dead calm and the ocean pretty flat, these are the days that keep us living here in South Florida. We started by trying to catch Bluefish for shark bait, however the fish were running right on the beach and a small breaking wave was just enough to keep them out of our reach. In the process of chasing the bluefish we did come across some nice Jacks. Sarah1 landed a solid 20+ lb fish. Sarah2 also had a nice Jack on but the hooks came out resulting in an involuntary remote release. We started to see some decent numbers of sharks and it wasn’t long before Sarah 2 was connected to a nice size Spinner Shark. These ladies have not done a lot of big fish fishing and these Spinner Sharks can be pretty intimidating the first time you hook into one, but I tell you what it didn’t phase Sarah at all. She listened to my instruction and went at it with the shark. She was determined to land that fish and that is exactly what she did, no crying and complaining that I hear from some guys, she just quietly and patiently worked the fish to boat side. Next was Olivia’s turn. Her fish turned out to be a real handful once she got it close to the boat so her and Sarah1 tag teamed the shark to land it. What an awesome morning on the water. These ladies did an exceptional job fighting these big fish. Three good friends spending a morning fishing in perfect weather conditions and catching fish that weigh more than they do, no better way to spend a spring break day.   

For more info. on TKF Charters click this link to my website www.tkfcharters.com
To see Fishing Reports prior to 2012 click  www.tkfcharters.com/reports/reports.php

Fishing Report -- 03-01-13

Jerry, Jesse and Sam were on board day 1 for some shark fishing. The trip was a fly and conventional tackle combination trip. The sharks weren’t out in the numbers that we had hoped for however there were enough to still make for a good day’s fishing. We started out catching some nice sized Bluefish on lures and fly. After catching enough Bluefish for the chum bag we then switched to shark fishing, first on bait. Between the three of them 3 sharks were landed on bait. Then we noticed that the sharks were chasing the teaser plug that we were throwing for the Bluefish pretty good. Jerry put the fly out there and a shark came from under the boat surprising us all and lunched the fly. All three had their turn on the rod and the Spinner Shark on fly was successfully landed and released. Day 2 was just Dad fishing just with fly, boy was he in for a treat. The weather day 2 was about the same as day 1 being overcast and a little cold and also started out with fishing for Bluefish but once we started fishing for the Spinner Sharks it was night and day different. The sharks were the most active on fly that I have ever seen. It was constant crazy action. After Jerry landed a few we switched to using flies with weak hooks that will bend out under heavy pressure rather than having to spend over a half an hour to land them. Overall Jerry had 20 sharks hooked up. It was really incredible. To quote Jerry, “they are behaving just like Brown Trout”, except I would get into the water with a Brown Trout.                               

For more info. on TKF Charters click this link to my website www.tkfcharters.com
To see Fishing Reports prior to 2012 click  www.tkfcharters.com/reports/reports.php