Another great weekend!!! Friday night we had Dave back for his second Apex Anglers experience, but this time he shared this quality time with his 3 teenagers, David, Luke and Taylor. It seems they were all having a blast as they picked through the small Sandbar sharks. After the first flurry of action, it was time to move. We packed up and headed elsewhere. The action continued on small fish, but they were more aggressive here, resulting in blistering runs… Everyone had the chance to land a few.. Then it happens, Dave notices a slight movement in the rod tip, and picks it up, something is there… It starts slowly walking away as he sinks the hook…. Before long he starts feeling the signature head shakes of a giant Sand Tiger, this is a big one!!! He did great not to exhaust this fish as he had it close enough to leader fairly quickly. Then we see it and a unanimous WOW overcomes all of us, this is a beast! Pat, Tyler and myself got in the water to land this fish, she had lots of energy left when she got to the beach, the hook was removed immediately, a few pics were taken, and it was time to get her back in. She did need a little extra time to regain her strength, so we stayed chest deep with her for a little extra time before she kicked off, the most rewarding part of all land based shark fishing!! Congrats to Dave, what a great fish. Just when everybody was satisfied, the oldest teen, David, sinks the hook in another giant!! Only this time… No head shakes, no blistering runs, just heavy rolling weight that did whatever it wants while paying no mind at all to the rod holder. In it’s typical stalemate fashion, everyone had a turn on the rod before David reclaimed what was his and landed a beast of a Roughtail Stingray. Beautiful fish all around and I don’t think anyone could ask for a better night! Dave is two for two on epic trips. Good job guys!!
Sunday night, Carlo, his wife, and his daughter came out for a nice night of shark fishing. First thing we had a terrible south wind that made kayaking baits difficult, but we managed to get them out. It was quiet for the first few hours, and I thought for sure the wind turned them off, but then like a light switch, we got runs on every rod in a 5 minute time period. They were being very finicky, mouthing the bait and spitting it. We finally put a few Sandbars on the beach, making them Carlo’s first sharks ever, to which he made continuous remarks about how powerful they are, even the small ones. The action died and it was once again time to move. Carlo’s little girl was getting tired, so we agreed only to stay for a little while… That was before the rod went off, slowly, but steadily… The hook is sunk into something big…. Once again, definitely not a shark… This was likely another monster ray… An hour and a half later, a monster Roughtail Stingray hit the beach, making this Carlo’s biggest fight yet! Wait til you see what the hook looks like now…
As always, we look forward to what the future brings us!
Until next time,
AJ