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Jacksonville Fishing Report for Amelia Island & Mayport
Capt. Dave Sipler
September 6, 2004
Jacksonville - Saltwater Fishing Report
Hurricane Frances....and here comes Ivan?
The fishing?
Don't know yet.
It's Monday....Labor day, and yes this state lost alot of money this weekend!
And here comes Ivan.
I suppose Sept. of 2004 will be remembered as the month that I just forgot about trying to make a living in the charter biz. Huh?
I have a Sept. 9th charter and the couple wanted Tarpon.
What Tarpon, first ya have to have an idea of where they are, right? We'll see.
We might not even make it out to catch a cold.
But on a sunnier note, here's a report (sort of) which was inspired by a charter I had on Aug. 30th.
Where I took out two gals, one was celebrating her birthday and got more than she bargained for.
5' gal against a 6'plus leaping cork screwing Black tip shark, at our inlet.
Tarpon hell......the sharks are almost tougher!
Go to my web site: www.captdaves.com to see the pics, and other new recent catch photos.
And don't forget you can hear about all that's going on via my radio show, "ALL ABOUT FISHING" WNNR am970
Saturdays 7-9am brought to you in part by Salty Dawg Marine, Quality Craft Cleaners and Sea-Tow Jacksonville.
LISTEN to last weeks recorded show on my "radio show" page.
Click on First hour or second hour, dial up down load is fast, just a minute or two.
Call in number, Local 904-739-9109 lets here your fish stories!
"I call 'em the Rodney Dangerfield's of the fish family."
9/6/04
Capt. Dave Sipler's Sport Fishing
www.CAPTDAVES.COM
904-642-9546
St. Johns River, and local inlets, near-coastal waters
Amelia Island to Mayport (Jacksonville) Florida
Big Sharks. I call them the Rodney Dangerfield's of the fish family. Why? Cause most of the time they don't get any respect.
Although let one bite a surfer and the area media will hype it up worse than a low strength hurricane on Labor day!!!!
I usually catch mine when chum fishing for Tarpon, at inlets or along the beach. Some are huge and some are not. Like behind a shrimp boat many times there's plenty of 100 pound plus sharks, if you want to tangle with one.
The most facinating sharks around here are the ones you have a possibility of catching on less than full roller rods and 12/0 Senators! And they are mostly Finetooths, Spinners and Blacktips, in the 100 pound range.
Sharks frequent inlets like the St. Johns and St. Mary's. I usually get them hooked up cause we are just fishing a dead, or live bait on the bottom for trophy sized Redfish, or hopefully a Tarpon too. They are not always there, though. I suppose numerous factors come into play which brings larger sharks to the inlets. Cause one day they can be thick and the next day they're gone. I always believe that a Tarpon hook-up is imminant, especially when I see lots of big Blacktips and Spinners "trashing" folks tackle in other boats.
It's almost a fact when Sharks are in your chum-line while beach fishing for Tarpon, that the Silver Gladiator is close behind.
They don't get much respect, because many area fisherman just can't do anything with them. They just can't stop them!
Lets take a jetty hooked Blacktip or spinner shark, for instance.
First, they have no species preferance for what they'll eat. I've seen people at the "jetties" fishing dead shrimp and catching one 3" seabass after another on a K-mart spinning rig. Does Mr. Shark care?
Nope.
As the 3" Seabass take the perverbial elevator ride as payment for the free piece of dead shrimp, the sharks take notice. Then all of a sudden, the "having fun just catchin one lil bass after another, Mrs. John Doe" is now hooked up and screaming bloody Murder as her 3" seabass gets swipped and the 15 pound test peels off here light spinning gear. And a 100 pound Shark is leaping and corkscrewing through the air 100 feet behind the family pontoon boat!
Which brings me to what makes these sharks so great.
The hook-up. The drag scream. And then, the launch sequence.
I've tried, but it's impossible to get a picture of a Spinner-Blacktip doing what they do best. And that's getting AIR-BORNE!
Marlin, Sailfish, and even the mighty Silver King - the Tarpon, have a RIVAL.
These sharks go nuts. They fly through the air CORK-SCREWING, aka: Spinning, and twisting and can do it 10 feet above the water line. And here is when 99.9999% of them break free.
They'll eventually break off. Imagine a 100 pound or better shark wrapping your line around it's sandpaper coated body. And then landing from 10 feet above the water.
In my 20+ years of fishing the St. Johns River inlet (the home of "variety" and plenty of Whoppers) Myself and my clients have only landed...(gaffed and/or boxed, or legally touched the leader under IGFA rules) maybe (5) of these freight trains.
Dang, that's not that great of a percentage is it? I guess Tarpon are a cake walk. No not really. But these sharks are like Snakes in the tall grass, "they take you by surprise".
The how-to is a hope and a prayer many times.. Myself, when I've really tried to catch them I couldn't. These sharks ain't all that stupid. They know what they want.
"Match the hatch", seems to be to thier liking. Cut mullet, cut pogies, croakers, Seabass or almost any live or dead fish. Super duper 1000 lb. cable leaders, the size of winch cable makes them wary.
Here's a story......I thought I was gonna be real smart. So I made up 10 foot long 140 pound single strand wire leaders, and haywire twisted on a giant HD swivel to one end, and a 15/0 VMC circle hook to the other. I bought some meat moving 8 foot "whaling" rods, and used my largest Accurate twin drag reels, spooled with 80 pound mono.
The first day out with this new idea I had a father and son on the boat. The son was 10 years old and the dad obviuosly labored behind a walnut finished desk for the last 20 years. There was no way these folks needed to tangle with the likes of a high flying 100+ pound Jetty Shark.
So after a few ass kickin reds for them) The young fisherman begged me to try for a shark, and I caved. (thinking this ought to be exciting)
All other tackle was put away, as I broke out the massive meat movers. I rigged the long leaders, baited the rods up and pinned on a hunk of some kind of bait.
10 foot long leaders could not be cast out. Even with a 8 foot rod. So I just kinda swung the whole rig out behind the boat in the current.
.
We sat and waited. The youngster, as in all Jr. fisherman was about as impatient as he could be. I told him there's no way he'd be able to even hold the heavy rod and reel let alone reel in a big spinner/blacktip. So we were gonna let "dad" try his hand at it if we hooked one up. Minutes seemed like hours......."since I'm not a kid kinda guy."
When the strike came on the Port rod. This is where it was intresting. Before we ever even saw the meaty rod bend over our shark was on the starboard side of the boat flying through the air and of course, Spinning it's a$$ off!
The Dad grabbed the rod and made a few attempts at reeling as the tight line snatched him and the rod from one side of the boat to the other. the on the second launch. Fish.....GONE!
Dad handed me the rod back with his mouth open, and a deer in the head light s look. And the son was......speachless, and probably needed to check his shorts!
Mind you this all happened in a matter of seconds and the fish flew by the side of the boat. Not a hundred yards away!
10 foot of 140 pound pound single strand leader was cork-screwed, bent and broke in half. Even I couldn't believe this!
You could tow my boat with this leader. It's that strong. But it's weakness was the corkscrewing.
I remember saying, "I guess even over-kill, won't catch one of those bastards."
Further anylysis; well we actually needed a bit stronger current, this would have forced the fish to run behind the boat rather than eating the bait, feeling the VMC circle hook, and launching itself next to the boat. The shark came straight up rather than running before the launch sequence was initialized! That's why the fish was airborne before the rod even bent.
But even with all of that, you'd think the 140 pound wire would have at least held? No, I guess not with all that Spinning in the air.
So what was next? I made some 200 pound mono leaders 8 foot, with only a 1 foot section of 140 pound leader. TRY SPINNING IN THIS CLOTHES-LINE, RODNEY!!!
So the day came, to try the my new fangled "anti-launching" rigs.
I was out at the St. Johns river jetties fishing alone. But had two friends anchored near me. We were all hooking big fat reds and having them eaten off the hooks by what my buddy discribed as 300 pound Bull sharks! He got to see one as it came up out of the depths and ate his charters Redfish.
Oh my god! These sharks are what I've been waiting for. We'd hook a 35" Redfish, get it nearly to the boat and then just see a monsterous boil in the water. That was Mr. Bull Shark. And no longer would we have a hook a leader or a fat Redfish!!
So I tied on one of my specialty Spinner Shark rigs. 8 feet of 200 pound mono and the 12" of 140 pound single strand wire. For the spinner/blacktips the 200 pound mono hoped to foil the corkscrewing, and the 140 pound single strand wire was to keep the teeth at bay.
But Bulls don't jump and spin (?)
I just tied my rig to my Redfish rod and reel. A G. Loomis Back-bounce Magnum Heavy GL2, with a Accurate 665HXM twin drag reel. Hooked up a half a Ladyfish to a 15/0 VMC circle hook that I had in the cooler. And swung the whole rig over the transom, and sent it to the bottom some 40 feet below in the heavy current, while I lost a few more reds to the sharks, and even managed to boat a few before they were eaten.
It took a long time for the shark rod to go off, but it did.......
I was hooked up, for a short time. But the shark let the bait go, and I came up with a mutilated Ladyfish. So out it went again. This time when the bull came back for the snack, I just let it take the bait and let it take off.
This time it worked, and I was hooked up to a Redfish eater! (I mean Ladyfish eater).
Anchored in a 4 knot current and hooked up to a well over 100 pound fish, I was yahoo'ing at the top of my lungs. The shark went against the current like it was a salmon swimming up stream to spawn. It was on a mission. Not nearly as fast as a spinner of a blacktip, but brute strength that has to be felt to be believed.
I turned the shark, it took off, I reeled it back, it took off, I reeled it back. Then at boat side I looked over into the water and almost lost my breath. The head of the shark surfaced for a moment in the dark water and it was the size of my outboard cowling!!
The leader was too long, and the shark was too far away from the boat. The fish would dive and I get it back up again. My back was screaming...."give me a break please!!!". When I stuck the rod in the pole holder and grabbed the long leader in an attempt to get a better look. This didn't work. The fish ran down and cut me off on the rocks below. Cut 200 pound mono!
So are you ready??
Cause this is the time of the year when the BIG REDS start to gather. It's the spawn. And when there's a river and inlet full of tasty Redfish, there's plenty of big bad a$$ sharks to tangle with. I absolutely love it! And will try anything to get one.
By the way, 1/2 a Redfish is a great bait.
I could go on. But the best way to learn is by doing.
There's more to know, if ya want to "take" one of these bad boys.
Or should I say get lucky enough to keep one hooked up?
Never use a long handled gaff on a shark cause this could mean a busted mouth, face or more when it decides to twist. Always use a hand gaff with a swivel built in the lanyard. Do not have your hands near the sharks mouth obviously. Make sure the fish is completely wore the heck out and "done".
Lip gaff only.
To disable, make and incision behind the head and cut through it's spine. This will disable the shark and fast. Gut and bleed, as soon as you can. A 12" serated blade knife works best. Heavy Gloves are always handy too.
And be careful. Respect this animal and it's strength!
Have a camera. And a camera man if your just doing it for fun. Release "Rodney unharmed", so I can have fun with him again.
Good luck, and hook a high flyer!
Capt. Dave Sipler
"ALL ABOUT FISHING"
with the jetty wolf
am970 WNNR
Size Does Matter
WWW.CAPTDAVES.COM for recent catch pics.
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