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By Jason
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Friday, April 13, 2007
"Slow start but lots of catches later in the day."
"Friday The 13th: FMB/Sanibel - More Spanish Mackerels, Small Sharks, Etc"

Usually when we go fishing we will make the decision to go at a spur-of-the-moment.  This outing however, we planned for for several days.  This outing would be an early morning one.  This report will be longer than usual because more than the "usual" happened today.  Read on.

Up at 6:00am, we began preparing.  Right around 6:45am or so I felt initially a dull onset of pain in my lower back, increasing to more severe pain.  Oh no, my back is giving out.  "The trip might have to be canceled" I thought to myself as I laid down in severe discomfort.   Karla tried to get me to go to Dr. Mel Youngs, a great chiropractor she has been to many times.  But I knew that would infringe on our outing plans.   After some time I said like heck are we not going out!  So in much discomfort, and walking funny, I continued on with the fishing trip preparation duties.  To the bait shop for 2 dozen shrimp, most of which were tiny.  Also I scooped up the excess bait I have been holding from Bonita Springs.

We left ground at 7:40am, the 3 of us on board.  First stop was in the river south of the Cape.  Karla picked up this little guy:


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8:16am

Second stop was at one of the islands at Shell Point near the channel.  I saw a fish scurry by and that is what prompted this.  However, no catches.

Next we headed straight for GH Reef.  On the way we stopped at the flats area near Sanibel Bridge Span A and noticed lots of boats apparently throwing their cast nets for bait.  As we continued out past Sanibel we saw a barge that I assume was holding pieces of SPAN C that crews are demolishing:


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9:42am

 As we neared the reef, Karla began telling me how nuts I was for taking her "so far out".  You see, the problem was that Karla was only looking behind the boat.  She saw Sanibel become a tiny tiny island 8 miles away and thought I was taking her to "doom".  Anyway, her attitude quickly changed when at GH she saw other boats and such.  In the area of GH Reef we were drift-fishing and patient.   She caught ths unidentified fish:


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10:11am

Later I caught one too:


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11:21am

Amber was sleeping all thought our GH tour:


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12:38pm

Good thing because the poor kid would have been bored to tears due to hardly any fishing action here at GH.

Later we headed to the May Reef area.  The wind was completely calm and the sea was nearly flat.  It was hot.  It felt like August.  We saw a fisherman catch something about 15-20 inches or so.  Based on the tail, it looked to be a Spanish Mackerel.  

Soon we were off to check the SC Tripod.  We anchored there and began catching Spanish Mackerels & Blue Runners.  Karla caught the 2 blue runners.  One after another after another after another Spanish Mackerels.  We also noticed a tall pole sticking out of the water about 50 feet west from the tripod.

At some point my camera began malfunctioning again and would not take still shots.  It would only take videos.  So all of the remaining pictures on this report were captured from video.

Numerous boaters cast netted the tripod area and caught loads of bait.  That is it.  I am retiring my blue 5 foot cast net and I am going to purchase one of those big white daddys.  Some very nice people looking for Mackerels were kind enough to give us some of their bait they just caught.

Soon a Sheriff Department boat arrived in the area and began investigating the pole unusually sticking out of the water.  


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2:25pm

Shortly after, a second Sheriff Dep't boat arrived.  They continued investigating for about 10 minutes then one of the Sheriff boats did this:


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2:35pm
 Click here to see the 30sec video 
(Be patient. It will take 30-60 seconds to buffer.)

The Sheriff's department basically tied a rope around the pole, and pulled on it causing it to become submerged.  Then they simply left the area!  Unbelievable.  Watch your props people!

I caught a Spanish Mackerel in a very unusual way:


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3:56pm
 Click here to see the 8 sec video why the way this Spanish Mackerel was caught was so unusual.
(Be patient. It will take 30-60 seconds to buffer.)

A little bit later I casted and a seagull caught my bait.  He flew around the SC Tripod and I was able to yank the bait free.  It slid on the tripod but did not get caught.  Pheww, that was close.

Through the day Amber caught a total of 3 Spanish Mackerels, releasing 2 of them.


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4:31pm

A late afternoon fisherman was casting for bait and pulled up some of the biggest fattest bait we have ever seen.  He offered us some so we traded him a Spanish Mackerel for some fatty bait.  He was going fishing for Tarpon and was going to use the SM as bait.  We then started using this fat bait he gave us and had some surprises.

I hooked onto something that had my pole bent way over.  With my 20 lb power pro and 25lb mono leader, I didn't want to fight too hard back on this one.  After about 5 minutes I ended up surfacing a shark about a yard long.  Just as I was getting the net ready to get this son-of-a-gun, the leader got sliced...poop!

Through the day we were each getting sporadic bite-offs.  I eventually upgraded Karla's leader using an Albright knot from 25lb to 40lb, then later to 80lb.  While on the 80lb leader, something very big grabbed Karla's hook.  She attempted to surface it but after some time THE 80lb LEADER WAS SHEARED OFF!  We suspect a large shark did this.

Amber had 2 hooks bitten off also.  

Later we moved on toward the Sanibel Lighthouse. 


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7:40pm - Just before sunset

Then Karla caught this small shark and another:


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7:46pm
Click here to see the 15 sec video of shark #2
(Be patient. It will take 30-60 seconds to buffer.)

Karla was terrified when we brought the sharks onboard!   I tried to convince her to grab the shark from the midsection and hold it with force but she remained terrified of this horrible lethal killer creature of the sea!

During this portion of the trip we made a total of 2 passes inbound from the lighthouse area toward span C in attempt to catch more sharks.  We had lots of bites where half the bait was sheared off.  Amber was really hoping to catch her first shark.  But this time Amber's wish would not be fulfilled...she landed 3 catfish instead including 1 Monster Catfish.  We also ran our submersible light about 5 feet below the surface.  Quite a swarm of bait fish began swarming counterclockwise around the light.  We cast netted quite a few of these.

We got back on land about 10:30pm.  

 

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