This time of year the food chain has reached it’s peak in the bay. By now the baitfish have flooded into the bay. Hungry pelagic fish have followed them into the bay relentlessly feeding on them and chipping away at there numbers. This time of year the tarpon, kingfish, barracuda, spanish mackerel, bonita, bluefish, ladyfish, blue runners, jack crevalle, they all become shark food. The hunters become the hunted.
We target sharks in the bay, mostly black tips because they jump like a tarpon and dig like a cobia and taste like grouper. Black tips are great to eat. You are aloud to keep two sharks per day per boat. Many Marine Biologist agree that Tampa Bay is the shark capital of the world. We have the largest population per square mile and the largest variety of sharks in the world.
Black Tip sharks are very easy to target and extremely difficult to land. One of the main ways we like to catch black tips is to use a mackerel, ladyfish or bluefish head or body chunk on a 4.0 “J” hook or circle hook attached to a 4 foot wire leader attached to a 5 foot 60lb mono leader. If their is a heavy current use an appropriate sized egg sinker, with no current freeline is best. You can put out three or four rods, but you must keep them seperated and when the shark hits one, you must get the others in and out of the way immediately. With a black tip over 50 inches expect an hour long fight. Wade Boggs and I caught the tournament record a few years ago measuring 79 inches. Wow, what a fight that thing was, long fight and great story!
On June 10th and 11th Ana Banana Fishing Company will be hosting the 11th Annual Black Tip Shark Tournament in Tampa Bay. This years tournament is called Hooks King of the Bay Black Tip Shark Tournament and is hosted by Hall of Fame baseball legend Wade Boggs. This years black tip shark tournament will be a 21 hour tournament and will be held at Hooks Bar and Grill at Little Harbor Resort in Ruskin Fl. At the awards ceremony there will be a live band and and a free fish fry. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the National Pediatric Cancer Foundation. For information visit www.anabananafishing.com.
For a fishing charter with Captain Joel Brandenburg of Ana Banana Fishing Company visit www.anabananafishing.com or call him at 813-267-4401 or find him at Hooks Bar and Grill at Little Harbor Resort.