By: Capt. Bruce Andersen
With the commercial shark fisherman that used to fish our area now regulated out of existence the shark population has exploded. On many days fishing for other species would be excellent, but you just can’t get them past the sharks. It’s becoming a bigger problem every year.
As frustrating as that can be, the silver lining is that we’ve got some good shark fishing. One of my favorite ways to target big sharks is to head out to the hump or any of the other deep spots like it in the spring when the amberjack spawn is on.
I’ll usually target these sharks with heavy 80-pound tackle. I like to catch live tuna or amberjack and send them down to the sharks. I don’t shark fish every day, but I’ll usually do several shark trips each spring when my customers request it.
Last April was no exception, and one trip will definitely stand out in my mind. I have an old customer, Bruce from Michigan, who called me in advance to set up a trip to target big sharks. He also requested that we fight the sharks with stand up tackle. He didn’t want to fight the fish with a bent butt rod out of a rod holder which we sometimes do to limit the physical strain on the angler. I told him no problem but warned him that it could be a grueling task if we got a big one on.
The day of Bruce’s trip, was a perfect day for shark fishing with light winds and seas and just the right amount of current on the hump. There was plenty of life out there that day with birds working and blackfin tuna occasionally busting on the surface. We caught a few tuna for bait and then dropped one down. On the first drop we actually caught a large 60-pound amberjack on the shark rig. Bruce whooped him with no problem. I knew Bruce was a good angler because he had fished with me before.
We proceeded to drop more tuna and over the next few hours we hooked a couple of sharks. They both seemed like nice ones, but we wound up losing both of them. One had bitten through the leader and I think we pulled the hooks on the other after fighting him for nearly an hour. On the next drop we hooked what seemed to be a large shark. It took Bruce about 2 hours to get him to the boat where we could finally see it was a nice tiger shark, probably about a 600 pounder. We got him on the leader once and then it took a run of about 100 yards. After another 40 minutes, Bruce was able to bring him back up. This time the shark was fairly tired. I grabbed the leader and was able to hold him right next to the boat. It was only the two of us on the boat that day. I don’t normally bring a mate, and Bruce came out alone for this trip. Bruce had the rod in his hands, and I had a 600 pound shark on the leader in mine. We really wanted to get some pictures so I told Bruce to put the rod in a rod holder and I would try to hold him close to the boat while he got some pictures. He sat the rod down and got his phone and had a perfect angle with the sun at his back. I had the shark on the surface right next to the boat. The shark wasn’t easy to control, he was slapping his tail on the water creating huge splashes and rolling up on the leader and shaking his head. He was just tired enough that I was able to hold him right next to the boat for what seemed like a few minutes but was probably more like 30 seconds. The whole time Bruce was recording some of the best shark footage I’ve ever gotten, or so we thought. It was perfect, the shark was putting on an awesome show right next to the boat.
I wrapped the leader around a cleat and tried to get my camera to get a few pictures. As soon as I got the camera in my hand he shook his head, broke the leader, and swam off. Bruce and I high fived as we had completed the mission for the day.
— www.captaineasycharters.com
You can reach Captain Bruce Andersen at Capt. Easy Charters,
MM 85, call 305.360.2120 or email at: captbrucekey@comcast.net