Having had enough of this long winter, my family broke down and planned a last minute trip to the Florida Keys last week. My 13 YO son and I had to get out fishing at least once, so we hooked up with a charter out of Islamorada. We tried to go with one of those suggested on here, but all were booked so we went with BK’s guy’s recommendation. It really turned out to be a good one! He asked what we wanted to target, and my wish was to catch a Tarpon, and my son Ben wanted a big shark. To that the guide asked “did you say BIG shark”?….. My son confirmed that yes; he was looking for a big shark. The guide let out a cynical chuckle and asked if we’d be willing to take a long ride and sacrifice fishing time for a quality experience. Of course, we were all in. We thought we were all about quality over quantity…… We started off by heading into the mangroves near town to net some bait, then the guides buddy contacted us via radio and informed us that he had 3 barracuda that he’d let us have for attractant and bait, so we cruised over there to swipe them. We then made a long ride (45 miles or so) and parked in the middle of nowhere with not a boat in sight in 2-3 feet of water. He cut some slices in one barracuda and put it on a rope hanging just over the edge of the boat, then went to tying a steel leader on a rod with 30 lb mono and a bait caster with no level wind. About 15 seconds into his rigging work, he says “can you guys make sure the sharks don’t steal that barracuda?”…… WHAT? Already?….. Yup! We spun around and saw 3 sharks circling the back of the boat thinking about stealing that bait. My son asks me “we can’t catch those sharks on this little boat can we”? This “little” boat is a 24 ft Ranger Bay boat…. I had no idea, but I knew I was willing to try.
Once baited up, he had me fit Ben with a fighting belt and Ben looked a little apprehensive and asked “what the heck is that thing for”……. You’ll find out soon kid……. Ben tossed the circle hook with a Barracuda fillet about 10 feet behind the boat and it took about 5 seconds for a shark to gobble it up. I honestly thought for a second there that I was going to lose my son. That shark took off like it was fired out of a cannon and Ben about went overboard. He finally got his footing and the fight was on. Ben hung in there like a champ for 30-40 minutes, but this shark was kicking his rear end big time. The only line he got back was when we chased the fish down with the big motor. After Ben was whipped, it was my turn. I fought for another 20 minutes or so, and we finally had the fish up next to the boat for some pictures and high fives. The first one was a “little” bull shark of about 200 lbs!!!! After that, it was my turn, and our guide let out that cynical chuckle again just before lobbing the next fillet into the water and handing me the pole. This time we had to wait a bit for the bite……..like 10 seconds instead of 5…… That shark hit and peeled off at least 300 yards. After a 1 hour battle, I finally had him below the boat, but did not have the strength left to get him to the surface despite being in 3 feet of water. I had to turn the rod over the guide who brought him up for more pictures. We did this two more times with the biggest fish (about 400 lbs) coming last. Ben and I both tussled with this brute for a good long time and when we finally got him to the boat (with the captains help again…..), we were too whooped to fight another one, so we headed out to find other fish. We had big Tarpon around us the whole morning, so we started targeting them with no avail, but we did sight some Cobia cruising right next to the boat (again in 2-3 feet of water). We threw a Pilchard out there and the bigger one hit right away. This was a grand battle for Ben and this time he knew he’d finally gain the higher ground in this hard fighting but smaller (about 15 lb) fish. WRONG!!!! He got the fish up next to the boat and just when I was going to lean over and grab it; it took the hardest run yet and was followed by a MASSIVE Bull Shark looking for lunch that came right out from under the boat. The shark chased the poor Cobia around the boat 3-4 times and tried to gobble him up right behind the boat between the motor and the power pole. Ben and I just watched in awe…… After finally getting the line unwound from the motor and power pole, we finally thought we might get this fish since the shark peeled off, but he swung back in just as the guide tightened down the drag to horse the Cobia to the boat before the shark could get there. It didn’t work. As soon as the Cobia saw the shark coming again, he took a hard run and broke the line. No fish for us on that one, but who cares…..that was AWESOME!!!!! The rest of the trip consisted of some Jack Cravelle that we again sight fished in shallow water, and a really long Lemon shark. Even though I didn’t get my Tarpon, it was absolutely the trip of a lifetime! We spent the next few days resting tired and sore muscles, and debating what we’d go after next time we make it down to the keys. It was a great experience and one neither of us will ever forget.
