Shark fishing trip

I had the pleasure of fishing with David Maldonaldo, his son and son-in-law. They wanted to go shark fishing and I knew of the perfect area. Almost immediately after setting out the chum bag, the small sharks were in the slick. We caught a couple of small sharks at first then nothing for about 45 minutes. A school of bull reds must have sensed that we weren’t paying real close attention to the rods and decided to have some fun with us. Those reds were some of the biggest redfish That have ever been caught on my boat. David had the HOT rod (which also was the smallest rod). I can’t remember how many he caught but each one was bigger than the last. Everytime we saw him bring up a fish we would all reply with the same awestruck reply ” My gawd, Look at the size of that one!”.

 I decided to move to another area even though they were having fun with the reds. They paid for a big shark and I was determined to get one for them. At the second location it was the same scenario, more redfish. Thay were having fun but in my mind I was feeling bad for not getting them into sharks. An hour at the new spot and I was thinking about moving again. All of the sudden, we seen one of the rods bend over and then a shark was airborn. That shark leaped about 8 foot in the air, did a half flip and hit the water mad. Two seconds later he came out of the water again this time giving us a demonstration of a flat spin before hitting water and taking about 80 yards of line off of the reel. Josh gave that blacktip a real fight and had him at the boat quick, too quick! I don’t like to have a big shark thats “green” right next to the boat, especially a blacktip.

Another Small Black Tip Shark

One of the Smaller Reds we caught

In case you don’t know, blacktips love to jump. So, for the safety of everyone on board (including mine), I backed the drag off and let the fish have about fifty yards of line before tightening it back up and letting Josh fight the shark again. He played it for a while longer, making sure it wasn’t green, and brought it to the boat. Once it was within reach I struck it with the gaff and he came completely out of the water and slammed against the boat breaking my gaff. So here I am, miles from land with a semi green, mad and bleeding shark with no gaff. I quickly grabbed some rope and made a loop to “rope” him. I quickly put the rope around him and had him where I wanted him. I measured him with a 8 foot rod and he measure down to the handle. I measure the handle and he was seven foot. A monster blacktip for sure. After the release, David and Josh said it was time to head in. While pulling up the anchor I spotted a bull shark that was about the same length but with a wider girth. Josh said ” gimme a rod” so I let go of the anchor rope And Josh said “just kiddin I’m tired and want to go back” so back we went.

 I always get just as excited and happy as my clients when they tell me that was the biggest fish they have ever caught. That never gets old. I remember every second of the fight with my biggest fish and that was years ago. It makes me feel really proud to witness and be a part of someone elses biggest fish.