Don’t post many fishing reports, but I’m bored at work right now and thought I would share.
Fished all day Sunday in the harbor - fought the wind early and the storms late. Very difficult and slow fishing but it was worth the wait. I had a group in the morning who said they wanted to fight the weather until they caught 2 sharks and with waves coming over the bow we were able to get one just under 6 feet and then another at about 4 feet. They were happy so we then turned it into a boat ride the rest of the morning.
The second group of the day wanted to fish regardless of conditions and it paid off. After being tossed around in the big afternoon storm for an hour with my group loving it, we finally got anchored up where we wanted to fish. After a very slow start, we finally had a good hit and pulled in the biggest red I have ever seen. It about broke my 30 lb bogas and I am estimating him to be close to 40 lbs and over 50 inches.
My group said they wanted a “monster shark” so I pulled out my biggest rod and heavy duty leader and hooked on my bonita head. About 10 minutes later the clicker went off and after a good hook set I pulled the anchor up immediately knowing we were in for a long fight. The fish was hooked around 6:45 and finally had him by leader against the boat about an hour and a half later. The fish was an estimated 11 ft lemon shark, which is my 3rd of the year of 10+ feet (all in the harbor!). The anglers were determined to get him in the boat so it was going to be at least another hour until he was worn out enough to get a tail rope on him. Word of advice - if you ever try to tail a big shark, don’t do it the first time you have him boatside because he will not be ready. After having him at the boat, the shark made a few more runs and used his body weight to do as he pleased for another hour or so. Sometime after 9 while fighting in the dark, he finally popped the line. I’m guessing he made it to the bottom and found some structure as the line popped above the leader. Overall, the group was