3-16-13 Bull Shark for the Michigan Men!

I had a group of guys out on the Bn’M today all from Michigan. They said they wanted to catch fish and if there was any chance at a shark that would make their. I told them Shark Fishing in Islamorada is some of the best! The first item on the agenda was dinner though. We started out the day looking a mahi or tuna, but we didn’t have any luck. We switched gears and decided to do some bottom fishing and caught a bucket full of lane snapper, porgy, and triggerfish, all great tasting white meat fish! We also caught a small atlantic sharpnose shark about 3′ long. The guys loved it even though it was small. After that we caught some barracuda, which make great shark bait, but we let them go since I had a plan in the back of my head. After that we headed to a wreck just outside the reef a few miles and caught a couple king mackerel. I knew if there was some king mackerel around there was a good shot at a bull shark. We rigged up the standup 50 rod and sent down a butterflied king mackerel. It didn’t take long to get a bite, but unfortunately he ate all but the head and we didn’t hook it. I was dissapointed but we didn’t give up. We had one more king to try so we sent it down and kept drifting. After about 10 minutes the rod double over and we were hooked up. The guys are took turns fighting the shark, and after about 40 minutes we had a 200 lb bull shark next to the boat. The guys were exhausted and excited. We took a few quick pictures and then released the shark to fight another day. March Shark fishing in the Florida Keys can be great, and we have the same group of guys in mid April so a tiger shark will be next on the list! Send me an email to set up a shark fishing trip!

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

bnmcharters@gmail.com