Fog, Decisions, Chaos, Victory and Incredible Shark Fishing

[Fish Biz]

What a day of shark fishing!
Set out of Townsends Inlet on the maiden offshore voyage on Jerry String's new 29 Everglades ( what a vessel) "Mucho Clams". The crew for today: Jerry, Myself, Joe and Mike a truly great bunch of guys to fish with.

Broke the inlet at 5:30ish and headed to the Jacob Jones area, well about 15 miles off the beach. The fog socked in thick and the temps dropped. We made it to our spot and didn't like what we saw. Decision one was laid out, We can fish in coldish high 50's water or head south about 12 miles. I had a partial SST chart that had showed a finger of 64 water from the day before. Decision was made to head 12 miles south towards the Manhattan just offshore of the triple wrecks with the hope of the south winds pushing us into that area. as we left the jones the water got colder and my head spun " I hope were not running into colder water". as we approached the water approached 61 not great but better than what we had.

We started to get set up, but realized our drift would not be ideal from our track. Decision 2 was made to run a little bit west and give it a go.

Finally goy everything right were we would get a nice drift through the stucture and over a couple wrecks and we get settled in, in the fog. About an hour and half into our drift we just start to come up on a lump and the far float starts bouncing. Huh looks like a bluefish bite. bounce bounce, I grab the rod drop it into free spool lookin for some fresh fillets for the slick. Come tight hook hook hook hit em three times. Steady pressure to the boat get em some what close fish takes off, we realize this is definetly not a blue fish 10 min later, the first shark off the day and more importantly the first big game fish on Jerrys new boat a blue shark over 100lbs come to the wire first release of the day.

This is when things get interesting, apparantly this fish had friends: As we started to get set up again Mike yells look at that!! I turn to see a shape off the stern only for a brief moment but it looked more compact and had more of a V tail, Get the pitch bait in closer, was heard as Jerry brought that in a shark followed it up," Tease her Jer, drop it down bring it up" another follow. " Jer drop it way down and wind as fast as you can". " There she is hook up second shark of the day is goin off. Jerry settled in for a nice battle, Joe on the wire 2nd release of the day.

Get the spread back out, Joes riggin a blue fish bait and the rod next to him starts bouncin, zip zip than nothin, "hmm" joe grabs the rod bouncin than nothin, Joe puts the rod down goes back to the bait, ZIp Zip, Hey "Mike grab that rod" says joe as he's back riggin up the blue fish. zipzipzipzipzzzzzzip, drop into free spool I say to mike before I could say "with your thunb on it he drops the drag and the fish takes off Push it to strike, just avoided the the birds nest come tight "hit it hit it". fish is on but not taking off. Me and mike look out and see a white belly rollin around on the surface. The fish started to come to the boat but not fightin. " Oh it must be a blue dog wrapped up in the cable" was heard. Shark takes mike to the far side of the boat and gets hooked up in the chum can and is heading for the motors, Joe reaches down, grabs the line tells mike to back the drag off pushes the line from the can and the fish takes off. zzzzzzzzz explosin as the fish now does a back flip with a sommersault 15 ft off the back of the boat. At that moment there was complete silence and time stood still as he went skyward as he hit the water, HOLLLLYY SH!!!!!!!T MAAAAAAKO, MAAAAKo. Game on and we settle in for a 30 min, battle as Mike fights a flawless second half, I get the flyer ready that Jerry borrowed from a buddy of his, loop it on the stern cleat , "color color, leader in hand" Joe explains "You Ready with the gaff Tim" Yup" head out gaff over the back sink it in just in front of dorsal, shark goes to take of," Oh shit the flyer won't release. Well it looks like I'm straight gaffen him. "Jerry you ready" "Yup You Gotta Tim". Lets do it, Pop the 38 with soft points goes, Jerry turns to me and with a school yard grin says. " Can I shoot em again Tim", Sure Jer Go Ahead. POP game set match. Now I'm not a big hand gun fan for the end game with sharks, I usually use a shotgun. But Jerry and Mike are both AC cops, so safety was not a concen I knew, it would go smooth when Jerry told me the day before, that he was bringing the 38. But I was impressed with the hollow points on the shark, no pass threw but put him down. Tied the shark got the tape out and he was 6ft1inch, nice fish 160-170 class mako

The rest of the day Saw Joe do battle with a 50in mako we released, that put on a show of his chompers off the back of the boat, stuck his head out and started biting at the air,

We ended the day with 3 makos seen 2 released and 14blue sharks seen and 8 releases. They were all over the place, what a day it was epic. With a great bunch of guys to fish with. Tim PS Pictures to follow.

[whitemarlin16]

Great Job Guys ... HOws that 29 ever glad? Tell Jerry Frank Said hello and good Job !

[Mucho Clams]

Frank,
We gotta hook up this summer! The boat rides real nice and has plenty of space! I am glad I took your advice and went with the CC

[DEEP DEFIANCE]

Im really glad you got A good one! You where long overdue for A good time! hey did you get my message from Rusty?lol

[Agitated88]

Very nice read...thanks for sharing. Now where are the boat and fish pic's?

[Fish Biz]

Im really glad you got A good one! You where long overdue for A good time! hey did you get my message from Rusty?lol

Thanks Mike, I tried callin you all day, No Rusty didn't say anything. I'll ask him tommorow. Oh and about my gaffin abilitys. I didn't scratch that pretty boat. I burried the steel, I did have an Oh shit moment when I realized The flier wouldn't deploy but thats were my Fat A$$ came in handy, I had a death grip on him and Jerry finished it with the Tap Tap of the 38.
I was very impressed with the 29 glades that is one sweet ride. she ran nice in the slop and she can shit and git. Very fuel efficnet with the twins also. Thanks again Jerry. Great fishin with you mike and joe. Tim PS pics comin soon I had to shoot them to Jer and see if he could get them on for some reason my comp doesn't want to play nice.

[DEEP DEFIANCE]

We where only about 5-6mi from you.I started crossing the Bimbo and drifted ne across the lumps and did well then moved A few miles and drifted across the NP and also did well but not one fish would have been weighable in the SJ tourney.I went towards the misty and ran into cooler water so opted out on that one but I will be paying close attention to the water temps and bait in the areas I will be fishing and hopefully we can at least muster up A weighable fish. I will call you sometime tomorrow to place my bait order.

[LadyAngler]

Awesome job guys!!!!

[SeaBiscuit]

Good fishing, reporting and photographing! Thanks a bunch and congratulations on a very nice mako!
SeaBiscuit

[wide open]

nice freakin work boys!!!!!!!!!!!