Fished the surf this morning with Christopher and his crew. Early 6am start allowed for viewing the sunrise, always a nice bonus. The surf wasn't bad, but a steady two feet pounding the shore. That'll come into play later.
I set up six rods to start. Two with bloodworms and Brown Dog Bomb kingfish rigs, two with cut bait (bluefish, kingfish), and two shark rods with chunks of bluefish and kingfish. It didn't take very long for one of the kingfish rigs to attract a hungry fish.
Our first victim was a little kingfish, which we released. I figured out the fish were in fairly tight to the beach, so I kept the casts short. The cut baits and shark baits were eaten by pesky fish and crabs. We picked at kingfish while the tide slowly began to ebb. I was hoping the turn out would spark the bite a bit. The only thing it did was bring in some weakfish and skates.
We ended up with six kingfish, three skates, and two weakies. Not stellar by any means, but a nice day. Things got a bit slow as the tide slowly ran out. Then suddenly one of the shark rods started to get pecked. Seemed like a skate or doggie bite, but when dude grabbed it, it took of screaming. He held on tight and reeled when he could. The beast dragged him down the beach a good way. I followed and coached him as he battled the heretofore unseen assailant. Finally, a good two hundred yards from where we started he began to gain line and draw the beast in toward shore. Suddenly the surface erupted and the head and pectoral fin of a sizeable sand tiger emerged and thrashed. I told him to expect heavy resistance when it hit
Fished the surf this morning with Christopher and his crew. Early 6am start allowed for viewing the sunrise, always a nice bonus. The surf wasn't bad, but a steady two feet pounding the shore. That'll come into play later.
I set up six rods to start. Two with bloodworms and Brown Dog Bomb kingfish rigs, two with cut bait (bluefish, kingfish), and two shark rods with chunks of bluefish and kingfish. It didn't take very long for one of the kingfish rigs to attract a hungry fish.
Our first victim was a little kingfish, which we released. I figured out the fish were in fairly tight to the beach, so I kept the casts short. The cut baits and shark baits were eaten by pesky fish and crabs. We picked at kingfish while the tide slowly began to ebb. I was hoping the turn out would spark the bite a bit. The only thing it did was bring in some weakfish and skates.
We ended up with six kingfish, three skates, and two weakies. Not stellar by any means, but a nice day. Things got a bit slow as the tide slowly ran out. Then suddenly one of the shark rods started to get pecked. Seemed like a skate or doggie bite, but when dude grabbed it, it took of screaming. He held on tight and reeled when he could. The beast dragged him down the beach a good way. I followed and coached him as he battled the heretofore unseen assailant. Finally, a good two hundred yards from where we started he began to gain line and draw the beast in toward shore. Suddenly the surface erupted and the head and pectoral fin of a sizeable sand tiger emerged and thrashed. I told him to expect heavy resistance when it hit