Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Why I kill sharks

And pic. Jeff also.

Gotta be Ron Jeremy making a cameo on the left. Talk about a hammerhead.... sheesh.

I too started with a 13.6 Boston Whaler running a 25hp Johnson.
We put in at Ft. Desoto one day and went over to Egmont Key for some shark action.

The sharks were thick in the ships channel there and we were catching one after another.
I was down to using my pliers for a weight to get to the bottom, the sharks had torn up all our gear.

We had 8 or 9 sharks layin in the bottom of that boat when one came to life outta no where and started rippin from one end of the boat to the other biting everything he could get his jaws wrapped around.

There just not too many places to get outta the way in a 13 ft boat, I dam near jumped overboard.

Finally got a gaff in him and settled him down...

Did a lot of night sharking off the Big Indian Rocks Pier, you had to be a member of the Sun Coast Shark Fishing Ass. to spend the night out there. We had a small row boat for setting out our baits and a davit for hoisting the sharks, our membership fees paid for that.

Crazy days and a great place to grow up as a kid...

A couple of the guys I grew up with there own these two boats, that's what I go out in when I visit the area there today.
These pics were taken at the Maximo Park boat ramp......

Great pic and great fish, Roger.

Thanks for the story and pics, Jeff

Both: the good old days.

I'm gonna kill a sting ray. And a man of war.

This what a Camp Fire is for.............

Jeff, If I weren't probably older than you, we'd have surely run into each other back in the day. All the places you mention were on my radar back then. And, no kidding about a great place to grow up. And also don't think I'd want to dance with a big shark in a 13'6" Whaler. Lol.

A friend of mine and his older brother and I used to run out to Egmont and camp out on the pilot boat dock all night. (I doubt you can do that anymore). We'd fish all night and then get in their 20' Open Fisherman and shark fish in and around the channel all next day. When we ran out of bait, we'd start using the speckled trout we caught the night before. I dropped a big speck over the side one time. As it was flashing and drifting side to side on the way down, something big smacked it. Damn near pulled me over til I sat down on the deck and got the drag straightened out. Turned out to be the one and only Tiger shark I've ever caught in my life. Have no idea what the heck it was doing in that neck of the woods. Long after the occasion, I did some research on Tigers, and this one did exactly what was described in many of the fight scenarios I was able to dig up. Bulldog and fight like a sumbich, and then come up to the surface and roll up in your line. After I got him unspooled and up to the side of the boat, my bud put a 12 ga slug through his grey matter and that was the end of that. Gave him the jaws.

One of the 2 biggest Manta rays I've ever seen in my life came flying out of the water about 50 yds from our boat just north of Egmont and the ships channel. We were sitting just off the channel, but IIRC he aired out from a spot inside the channel.

Those were the days.

Nice!

Don’t get it wrong, I’d take a 24’ Yellowfin anyway of the week. The price tag on new boats, especially currently popular styles like “hybrid” bay boats, is simply retarded though. Oh well, GFT.

Freddy Fender caught a nice tarpon...!

yeah no chit no way I could afford an offshore boat right now
, I'm fortunate to have good friends that can.

Jeff, found some pics of the Ranger on my old laptop.

Nice!

Freaking beautiful, LD.


Dayom, I love your float.

stiffy push pole?

Yesssir.

And Repaired. lol.

Gotta do it while it's still legal.

Thanks, fellas. I kick myself daily for selling that boat. It had the best of everything. Couldn't get people to fish and I got tired of launching and retrieving it by myself. It's fine once you're on the water. It's just the crap at the ramp. That was before Flave moved down here and Mannlicher and I hooked up.

Painful.

Ralph, you hunt where a big bear can eat your ass, that's a chance you take do you think we should kill every one of them we see, I'd bet they kill more people than sharks...do you know how many folks are killed by deer each year.... it's more than sharks... I'll keep one to eat but let the others go.