The band I perform with band, the Yard Dogs, had an evening gig scheduled on Captiva Island at a place called the Mucky Duck. I headed out early, parked at the pay lot at the very end of Sanibel-Captiva Road, and headed out to wade fish with my trusty Gotcha lure.
I wandered north towards Redfish Pass a ways to get beyond the throngs of tourists then waded out once I had a clear patch of beach to myself. I proceeded to spank the little hand sized crevalle jacks, putting a number in my styrofoam bait chest int the next hour.
I think I had five jacks, a sea robin, a large pinfish and I finished off the bait search with a ladyfish that splashed my camera lens.
I met a nice young couple, Steve and Miranda, from New York who were fishing nearby. Steve was bait fishing and had only caught a few catfish, so he was envious watching me catch the jacks and ladyfish. I gifted him with a spare Gotcha lure, explained to him how to work it, and before I left he had landed a nice ladyfish on it! I enjoy helping out other fishermen!
I hiked back to the van and headed to the gig to do load-in and sound check. During the show that evening, my friends and local Sanibel residents Gene and Diana Taylor, showed up. Knowing that Gene is an avid fisherman, I promptly invited him to join us for shark fishing the following evening.
Fast forward to Saturday...
I scurried around in the morning doing last minute shark fishing prep errands (like getting batteries for the lanterns, glow sticks, sodas and beer, snacks, ice, etc. I stopped at El Tropical Cuban Cafeteria for some take out cuban sandwiches and to touch base with my friend, Mirardo, who was to accompany me, along with his nephew and future son-in-law on the sharking adventure. It turned out that he had been delayed on a trip to Miami and was unable to make it back in time to fish that evening. It looked like it would be a two man adventure between me and Gene.
At about 4pm that afternoon, a huge deluge hit Cape Coral. We had over an inch of rain drop in less than a half hour! But it was short lived and the skies to the west were clearing as I left home to head to Captiva. I can't say the same for the easterly skies though as this picture snapped crossing the Cape Coral Bridge shows!
There were clear skies ahead as I approached the Sanibel Causeway though - so that boded well for our evening on the beach!
Gene and I took turns paddling out baits. Here's a couple pics of Gene on the bait delivery express...
We had baits in the water and were completely set up by 7:30 that night. Two of our rods were baited with jacks, a third with a spanish mackerel, and the fourth rod with a bluefish. While Gene was out dropping bait I noticed a young couple nearby and the man was fighting a large fish on a fairly light spinning rod. I wandered over to watch the battle but his shark broke off before we had a chance to see what kind it was. Too bad! The man's name was Sebastian and the woman was Jennifer. I learned they lived in Cape Coral too. Sebastian was from Chile and Jennifer was from the Czech Republic. You meet nice people when you spend time fishing! I invited Sebastian and Jenifer to come see the Yard Dogs play at our show at the Twisted Conch in Cape Coral next Tuesday. Hope they can make it!
Gene had noticed one of our heavy rods had been pulled completely over and was laying on the sand. Evidently I had left the drag too tight and a shark had hit and pulled hard enough to topple the pvc pipe rod holder driven deep into the sand. Gene grabbed the rod and began reeling in - only to discover zero resistance. Evidently the shark had run parallel to the beach and dragged the line over the shells on the sandbar which had frayed it through up above the leader.
After re-rigging that rod, I sent Gene out just before sunset to drop a fresh bait and snapped this photo in the process. Nice Captiva sunset. That spot on the horizon is Gene in the kayak!
When Gene returned we settled into our beach chairs as daylight faded.
Nothing much happened for a long time. Gene and I enjoyed the peace and quiet and had and enjoyable conversation while waiting for some action. Suddenly the 9/0 reel baited with a jack went off! Gene leaped to his feet, seated the butt of the rod into his fighting belt and tightened the drag.
After a very brief tussle, he felt the fish was off. He reeled in only to discover the shark had bit and chewed the bait just behind the point of the hook and the run had been a result of the shark holding the bait in it's mouth rather than having been hooked. But as we were still fiddling with that rod, the 12/0 rod baited with the whole bluefish went off - big time! I yelled to Gene to get the rod and he started cranking only to discover that shark was not on the hook either. Knowing that the bait was a three pound bluefish, I just asked him to leave it out so that the shark might come back to pick it up. We had secured the bait to two hooks by threading the leader through the mouth and gills and secured them further with zip ties. I knew there was no way the shark had taken that bait off the hooks!
Not long after all this we got a fourth run! This one was again on the 9/0 rebaited with a spanish mackerel which Gene had dropped just before sunset. I grabbed that rod but felt the line go slack. I reeled in only to discover it had broken off again above the leader. There are lots of snags from old crab pots and such out there and evidently the shark had chaffed through the line again.
Gene and I rebaited two of the three rods (we left the bluefish bait alone) and I paddled them both out - rebaited with half a ladyfish on each one. I took them a good ways out. Spooky as hell paddling those baits out alone in the dark I tell you!
Upon my return, we both settled back into our beach chairs.
A little while later, around 11:00, Jennifer walked over from their nearby spot to chat with us.
She had run out of cigarettes. I don't smoke cigarettes, but I do enjoy an occasional cigar, so I donated a small cigar for her to share with Sebastian. We also donated some jacks and a ladyfish for them to use as bait as they were running low. Jennifer reported that Sebastian had been broken off a couple more times too and had landed no sharks either.
Gene and I soaked our baits until shortly after midnight with no further activity. We decided to pack it in and go home.
When we reeled in the 12/0 rig, we discovered that the whole bluefish bait was gone! The 148 pound wire leader had been bitten clean through!
Now THAT was some sort of bad-ass shark to have done that!
Not only did we discover the leader bitten through, but we found a wad of tangled monofilament leader wrapped around the spider weight sinker. I hand over handed it in and imagine my surprise to find BOTH of the rigs we had lost attached to the other side of all that mono! One rig was intact, but the only evidence of bait was just the jawbone of a spanish mack still hanging on the hook! The other bait was gone and the leader (this one was a multi-strand cable leader) had been chewed through just above the hook! We wondered if it was the same shark that had taken both baits or if there were two sharks with sore jaws and wire leaders hanging out of their mouths swimming around that night!
Gene was a hard worker and dragged the kayak back to the road as I emptied the remnants of our bait chest into the Gulf. I like to donate unused bait back to Neptune.
We had had four runs and though we caught no fish, it is still exciting to be out there fishing for the big boys! My lesson learned is to ALWAYS check the bait after a run - even if I think it's still there. And unless the bait is huge, I plan to re-check smaller baits after an hour or so. Small sharks and crabs can chew a bait away to nothing and you can sit there for hours, as we did, thinking you are baited up when in reality you aren't!
I hope Gene will accompany me again. If he does, i am SURE we'll get 'em next time!
I got home around 3:00am, was asleep by 4:00, up at 9:00 and off to work by 1:30 that afternoon.
Life is good!
1 comments:
seems like you got a little bit of action atleast..too bad no fish, but atleast you know the spot is capable of producing. i don't like staying on the beaches after dark, and i bet it is very spooky rowing your baits out in the dark alone..its scary swimming out my baits 400 feet from shore in the day/early evening for the tarpon..i was thinking about using an inflatable raft, do you suppose that would suffice for paddling out my baits, i cannot afford a kayak at the time, and then there's the factor of hauling it around.
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