St. Marks great day

[onefishtwofish]

Decided to get there later as the tide was dead low at 9:00am. Bait was a little harder to find, but we got about 40 or so finger mullet. After the bait was tucked away, we motored to the bar we had planned on fishing based on the tide and wind direction and no one was there. I drop the first one in and it is attacked right as it hits the bottom. Long fight with a lot or runs later, we see the flash of a smallish jack. Crud, thought it was a big red. Same thing happens the next cast, only this time it is a red. My brother hooks up and we have a double. My nephew is saying cmon guys, I am not even tied up yet.

We only stopped to photo the overs like this one.

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We had our 3 in the well pretty quick, but my brother got his over.

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My nephew lands one just over with a hard pinch.

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While I was fighting one of mine, I commented about the shark stealing them and my red was goin ape. Aerial twice. Never saw that shark. My brother was later fighting one and it too went ballistic. We see a monster bull shark and before he can react to do anything, zing goes the line and pop he has his redfish brunch.

My last over, my board goes to 30 and this one taxed it to the max. Right at 30.

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We ended the day when a rainstorm ran us off at 12:30. Finished with an even 30 reds in the boat, not a single one under the slot and 4 overs. Lost one to a shark and two to the trim tabs and had 2 finger mullet left we released for seed stock.

[silverking]

That is an outstanding day. Those fish were really bunched up.

Do you fish a Ranger skiff, OneFish?

[Harmsway]

Whoa, Dude, that's what I call gettin' it done.

[FishWithChris]

Sounds like a great day. Love to see some overslots!

I do have one discrepancy though: if the shark search and destroy runs are heavy, why continue to fish for the reds putting them in danger and drawing the sharks to the area your fishing?


...still jealous though!

[onefishtwofish]

I know galant. I had told them we were gonna watch for that (I saw another poster talkin about it). When one of mine went airborne, I figured that's what it was, but never saw it. When the shark grabbed the one red it was confirmed. We only caught a couple more. That was the only incident and they were a good hour apart or more. As a matter of fact, I had just dove in to save my redfish measuring board when his got grabbed.

I had never actually seen it before, just read about it. Most of the reds we catch are skinny water and a lot of them we catch wading. FWIW, we have fished barsand creeks at St Marks for the last 2 years and that was the first ever shark sighting chasing a hooked fish, we were only on the lookout thanks to LucWilliams and dad.

Has anyone else seen this much around St Marks? I have fished the general area for 20 years and we have had a few chases, but this was the first take. Also, we talked about what the best thing to do in that situation. Feed them slack and let them run or what? I had a friend catching snappers and she was telling me the dolphins were stealing them as fast as they could reel them up. We hooked 33 fish, landed 30 and only had one fish stolen. Not like it was happening frequently, but I have always wondered the best way to deal with that.

[KyTrkyHntr]

[SHOWBOAT]

Great day OneFish. I don't think there is much you can do about the sharks. I rarely have trouble when catching reds, but I do have a couple trout taken from me each year. There is rarely any sign until a big wall of water forms and the trout grows by about 150#s. Like deep hooking, foul hooking in the eyes, tail looping billfish, etc, it simply an unfortunate event and part of fishing.

Thanks for the report.

[bman]

Sounds like a great day! Bummer on the shark but its part of the deal.

[kirt123]

Cant say I would have left them either, those quality days are hard to find this time of year, I would have quit when they did, just gotta reel faster lol.

[Williamsdad]

Those are some beauties. You guys must have been beat. Nothing like getting into them on your first bait. This year, the f. mullet seem to rule.

Not going to ask location, but that seems to be the key. We only encounter this in certain places, but it never ceases to amaze. Luc has developed a technique of flipping the bail when he knows there's trouble, and that seems to let the reds escape the predator. I started "winding faster" as one post suggested, and started to believe that if i got the fish close to the boat, the shark backed off. Sunday 2 of mine that either I got or they broke off were actually under the boat for a while.

We save (release) a good number of "keepers" over the course of the season, but I have to admit, leaving this kind of action for the safety of the fish never occurred to me. Does make you think - a little.

30 for 33 - WOW - those are Hall of Fame numbers, both for "hits" and "at bats". Thanks for the report.

Work sucks.

[Flint River Pirate]

Great catch!

[onefishtwofish]

I reckon the way I figured it, we each kept one and the shark kept one. None of us were over the daily Florida bag!

[Just Fish]

I had a nice size shark steal a red from me west of the lighthouse. He was only in about 1-2 ft of water. Never knew reds jumped like tarpon until that shark showed up.

[Bullet]

I've been losing fish to sharks @ St. Marks for about 3 or 4 years now. I figure that it's part of the deal. Most of the time they are reds although I have lost a couple of gator trout to the gray suits. It has always been in shallow water, close to oyster bars & I was wading.