Fun in the sun with the family
Capt. John Rivers
June 10, 2008
Pensacola - Saltwater Fishing Report
Finally, a day with the family that didn't blow.
With the wind blowing a little too hard all week, I told my wife that Sunday looked like a good day to spend a few hours on the water.
My son, Nick invited his friend, Michelle, and so it would be the four of us competing for the catch of the day.
The alarm went off at 5am, and by 6am we were loaded up and on our way. We stopped at Michelle's house to pick her up, and then we headed for the boat ramp.
As we launched the boat, we commented on how warm it already was, and the sun hadn't even been out for an hour yet! The bay was like glass, and we had a slight breeze out of the Northeast around 3knots. It was an ideal morning for fishing! The agenda for our escapade was to hit the flats early and go after some speckled trout, and then go shark hunting.
After loading up the live well with some live baits, we hit the flats. Michelle was the first to hook up a nice 13" trout, followed by Nick, whose trout was also a little short, just shy of 15 inches.
A few minutes went by and Michelle had on another one, a keeper at 17 inches.
Gina's first fish was a feisty ladyfish that put on a show by jumping 4 –5 times before making its way to the ice chest for our shark expedition later on that day. I was busy rigging and baiting hooks, but I did manage to hook a few trout on my artificial shrimp.
I was jigging a Golden Bream Exude 3" Shrimp. I missed more strikes than I should have, but of the 6 or so strikes I got, I landed two nice fish. We drifted the flats for a good couple of hours, hooking into around 15 or so trout and keeping 3 for the ice chest. We didn't get any over 20" today, but there's always next time.
Now that we had some fun with Mr. Trout, I told my son and his friend that we were going to go shark fishing. My son had only caught one or two sharks in the past and it had been a few years since he'd battled with the man in the brown suit. I plugged in my GPS numbers, and we were off. After a nice 15 minute boat ride, we arrived at our destination, and I set out the anchor and started chumming with chunks of bluefish. I had brought along my two bottom rods which are two 700 Tekotas spooled with 60lb mono and 6ft of 90lb coated steel leader with a 3oz egg weight and a circle hook on each. With a good chum slick going, I set out the two rods and then put out a third one, a 7500 SS Penn spooled with 30lb and the bait drifting on top.
There was a nervous energy on the boat as the four of us waited eagerly for the click of the reels to go off. I had prepped everyone on what to do when their bait got hit, but I certainly didn't prep them on what was about to transpire. Our son was the first to get in the game. His bait got the first strike, and he was as excited as a kid at Christmas!
We all gathered around him to see what he was reeling in, but then Michelle's reel started whizzing, and she was worried that she wouldn't be strong enough to hang on.
We encouraged her to keep reeling, and before we could see what either she or Nick had hooked, the third reel started vying for our attention! That's right, we had three sharks on at once, and we were doing the three-shark tango on the Mega-bite! Nick was fighting the first shark and after it walked him around the boat 3 times, he had it boat side for me to gaff it and take a few pictures.
Michelle was busy with her shark and Gina had the spinning rod. I had Gina put the spinning rod in the holder for a quick minute to take couple of pics, and then Nick took over fighting that fish. During this time, Michelle was still fighting her first ever shark, and it was giving her a good battle. Gina was snapping pics, I was instructing, and the two teens were battling sharks.
Michelle's shark finally came boat side, and when she got a good look at him, her eyes got almost as big as the sharks!
We pulled her shark on board, snapped a few pics and let him go. Nick had his boat side not too long after. We were already exhausted, but still had bait left, so we continued after a water break, and a couple of text messages and phone calls to friends.
We hooked around 8 sharks in a very short time and all were released after a few photos. We decided to pull anchor and we made our way to Ft. McRae to see what was going on over that way, but not too many people were out. Maybe they had heard about our shark bonanza! We headed back to the boat ramp, enjoying the breeze as we flew across the bay. We enjoyed a great day on the water. The weather, the company, and the fishing were excellent! We got back home, and after tidying up and eating lunch, we were ready for a nap that would surely bring us dreams about the next family adventure.
Tight Lines.
Capt. John
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