4/15/14 Big Tiger Shark on the Bn’M II

I had Nick and Caroline from London out fishing in Islamorada on the 15th, and Nick said he wanted to catch something big. Well the old saying goes, “be careful what you wish for”. And the old saying is true many times, but I like to change it up just a little, so I told him “be careful what you fish for”. We caught some live minnows in the morning, and started heading offshore to try to catch a monster shark. On the way out we caught a few mahi, and we finally reached the spot I wanted to fish. We set out two bonitos, which I had caught a few days before. We made our first drift, but no bites. I was a little discouraged because there wasn’t hardly any current, so I wasn’t sure if we’d get a bite. We reset and put out the two rods again. Bam! We got a bite on the deep line, but pulled the hook immediately. We wound it up to check it and it was just an empty hook. But then we saw the float on the shallow rod lay side ways. Usually it’s up and down vertical with the weight of the bait and sinker on it. We started cranked and the rod slowly bent over. Nick got in the chair and went to work.

4-15-14 fight shark

The shark didn’t do much at first, so I thought we might have had a small dusky or bull shark on. But then he woke up and the battle was on. It was an hour tug of war, and when Nick finally got the giant shark up on the leader he couldn’t believe his eyes! It was a 10′ , 500 + lb tiger shark! He was literally speechless. We got a little under water video of the beast boat side, and after a few minutes we broke the leader and the fish swam away healthy.

4-15-14 tiger shark

It was an awesome fight and an awesome fish. Fishing for big sharks takes patience, but if you get the right bite you’ll have a memory to last a lifetime! Congrats Nick! email me if you’re serious about trying to catch a big shark at bnmcharters@gmail.com

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

 

4/7/14 Big Bull Shark!

Now is prime time to go monster shark fishing in Islamorada! We left on the Bn’M II yesterday morning and the plan was to go vertical jigging, and then head to the hump to try for a big shark. When we hit the first spot we found some AJ’s, but the sharks had found them too! We managed to catch a handful of who ones, but the sharks got a few of them too!

4-7-14 aj head

I thought about shark fishing in the first spot, but I really felt confident with heading to the hump where the sharks school up this time of year. It can be a feeding frenzy on the spawning amberjack. We sent down a live jack on one rod, and put a dead bait near the surface. Before we got the live jack down we had a bite! Colin got in the chair and went to work. After about 20 minutes we got a visual on the beast!

4-7-14 bull shark underwater

We could tell it was a nice size shark. Once we got him closer up on the leader we identified it as a very large bull shark! Well over 300 lbs!

4-7-14 bull shark 1

After taking a few pics we cut the leader and the big fish swam away. It was Colin’s first bull shark, and it was a darn nice one!

4-7-14 bull shark

We made a few more drifts over the hump, and each time we had a bite. I think we used up all our luck though, because we lost one more shark after a 15 minute fight, and the other few bites got our bait off the hook. It was a fun day though, and I am looking forward to the rest of April, as well as Shark fishing May! Send me an email if you want to try to catch JAWS! bnmcharters@gmail.com

Capt. Nick Stanczyk