# 17 sharks in 24hrs...Dont go swimming on the upper coast..



## ShawnQ (May 21, 2004)

I took 10 days off of work for Sharkathon....and ended up having to cancel just in case my Pregnant Wife decided to go into labor a little early (and she started having a few contractions and complications). With PINS several hours away and no cell service where I usually fish it...I figured better safe than sorry. Turns out sharkathon was tough, as usual...but Monday after started looking good. I got a hold of a friend who knows the upper coast a lot better than me, and we decided to do a tuesday-wednesday overnight trip close to home just in case my future son decided to arrive early.

We arrived at the beach around 12 and were greeted with sandy clearing water, 2' with occasional 3's, E/SE winds around 10. We got to our spot around 1-1:15 and immediately had birds with something big busting bait underneath. We got some live finger mullet in the first gut and sent them out hoping for jacks but ended up with a gaftop. Cut him in half and had my friends first bait out by 2:15. Immediately after I started rigging my rods, which have basically been stored away since I joined the USCG in 2009. I took them to sharkathon last year but never ran one out due to conditions. I hadn't even finished rigging one of mine, let alone paddled one for myself yet and the first bait i dropped for my friend gets picked up!

After a short fight the first shark hit the sand, a typical bull.










From that point on...we landed at least one every hour. If you figure a 5-10min paddle, a 10-20min fight, and another 10-15min to rig and re-organize release gear...there isnt much soak time in between. There also wasn't much time to get more rods in the water with only two people (and only one kayaking).

My first one was the biggest of the trip at 6'5"....healthy bull. Got it on a 12' rod with a 4/0wide on a mono leader. Good fight.










It was late in the afternoon before I could get more than one rod out for each of us.

Another bull:










46" bull red that ate a wing of cownose...










Blacktip. As you can see, my PFD never came off...never had time to stop paddling baits! It acted as a good cushion anyhow as I dont know where my fighting belt went...










Right before dark i finally got three baits yakked out for me and two for my buddy. Not long after and they were all hit. I would rerun baits up until almost midnight...taking advantage of a fairly calm surf and a decently clear sky with a bright moon. We ended up with 8 sharks and 1 bull red between the two of us on Tuesday. I think if I would've kept running baits, they would've kept hitting them. I was worn out!

Another bull










To be continued...


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## ShawnQ (May 21, 2004)

And another bull...










And another, the smallest at 50", who hit one of our biggest baits, a 5-7# piece of jack ran well offshore in hopes of a bigger fish. Of course!










By then our baits out were a large piece of cownose, which oddly hadn't moved, a piece of ray that got hooked up and then bit through, a pair of small jack chunks that oddly sat untouched. We had enough for the night and ended up crashing around 130am.
I believe we ended up with eight sharks on Tuesday.

I woke up around 230am to one of my jack chunks running but it dropped it. Then again at 300 to the other jack running and dropped. At 4am the spun of a rod going slack in a rodholder woke me up, spun of a few short bursts of drag, then slack. I watched it and dozed off. At this point the wind had died and I forgot my sleeping bag. The mosquitoes were biting men on my backside THROUGH the bottom of my tentcot. ****! Needless to say I didnt sleep well.










Got up around 8:30am, found the culprit of the short bursts of drag with a 43" red:










Also cranks in the big bait and saw that although it didnt get hooked up...it did get lit up!










At this point my friend already had fresh slimers on the beach for bait. I took my time trying to catch a few and finally got baits out around 10.

From that point on, same as yesterday...nonstop until we left around 4pm.

Doing battle...










To be continued...


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## ShawnQ (May 21, 2004)

And another bull...










And another...










This one I had just landed...im about to stand up in this pic because my other bait just took off! Double up! It happenned to both of us at one point:










And immediately hooked back up:










Yet another bull:










I had told my Wife that I would stop running baits and start packing my gear at 2pm. I was able to get two rods out for me, and cast one...and two rods yakked for my buddy, and he cast one...all by 2pm.

Every one of them got picked up. One was bit off, one got hit several times with no hookup and finally resulted in a lack of bait...same with another one. Two of them resulted in another bull, and another blacktip.

The last one standing was a cast bait which was BARELY to the 2nd bar. I cant cast well with this penn 555 and 12' AR rod. It didnt make it over the 2nd. It ended up with a 60" bull just as I was about to reel it in! Topped the trip off with a cast bait shark, which always seem to elude me. Glad I finally got one!










Ended up with 17 sharks. Smallest was 4'2", largest 6'5", and all but two were over 5'. Two bull reds.

I assume pre-front mixed with good sea conditions, seasonal bait migrations and fall feeding had a lot to do with our success. We hit it just right, left them biting, unfortunately, because I had to be home. I was worn out but would've loved to run baits until just after dark, 'primetime'!

It was exhilarating, exhausting, awesome, & I can't wait to do it again!


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## waltmeda (Jul 9, 2013)

Awesome!!!!


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## edjman (Aug 13, 2013)

Great report. I bet you have some sore arms.


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## sharkchum (Feb 10, 2012)

Great job, that makes me jealous.


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## Bankin' On It (Feb 14, 2013)

Great report!


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## gaftop (Feb 20, 2005)

Great trip and photos!


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## Shark_Reeler (Aug 16, 2014)

Sweeeeeet! That's some TSR points. :rotfl:


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## shadslinger (Aug 21, 2005)

Shark em up!


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## SurfRunner (May 22, 2004)

Wow! Sounds like a PINS report! Better in most cases!


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## Paul-nm (May 30, 2014)

Amazing trip!! Fantastic report. Thank you for sharing it...


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## bluefin (Aug 16, 2005)

Whew! I'm whipped just reading that. lol
Congrats on a great trip and thanks for sharing the pics and adventure.


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## troutless (Feb 17, 2006)

What can I say, Awesome, Awesome. Thanks for a great report and photo's.


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## jagarcia10 (Mar 10, 2011)

Bravo!


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## WillieT (Aug 25, 2010)

Great report and pics.


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## scrambler (May 28, 2004)

Great trip and great write up and pictures


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## colbyntx (Jul 18, 2013)

Sounds like a great trip minus the skeeters!


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## Blacktip Shark (Mar 7, 2010)

Nice! Thanks for the report.


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