Corpusfishing.com

[archipelligo]

Hit the sand around 430 am Tuesday morning and headed to the jetty, made a few stops for bait along the way and picked up some finger mullet and a few skipjacks. The water in the 30s and 40s looked great, the water nearing the jetty was a little stained but found a nice blocked gut that looked fishy (birds,bait, etc) so we set up shop around 300 yards north of the jetty. Started throwing a few lures in the wade and first gut with nothing really to show for it but a few magnum skipjacks which gave my friend quite a thrill on the trout rod as he is a rookie to fishing and has never fished saltwater. My intention was to try a little "light" action shark fishing with 65class spinning reels and medium/heavy fast action surf rods, the leader consisted of a modified fishfinder rig with 130lb cable and a 10/0 circle hook. So at about noon set up two rods with fist sized chunks of cut skipjack and casted them into the 1st gut(after the wade gut) and one gets blasted within 30 minutes and we are hooked up! Since my friend is a rookie, I hand off the rod so he can feel the power and needless to say he was impressed as the shark ran towards the gulf. After about 10 minutes of pure panic and being worked into a good lather the hook pulls and my friend is devastated. So I check the leader rebait and cast out, as I'm walking back to reholster the rod I notice my friend sprinting down the beach reeling frantically, so i run over to start coaching just as i get there line goes slack, again devastating for the rook. So we talk about it, he feels hes doing something wrong and frankly I'm doubting my coaching abilities, he decides he wants me on the next shark so he can see it happen from start to finish. Doesn't take long 15 minutes later I'm hooked into a burner on the spinning rod, here is the video, its a little odd with the music but I was having fun with it, and the picture in the end is a stock photo because my friend forgot the camera down beach during the fight.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGUKAqPPBRM

Now the reality has hit for the rookie and he is excited! So with all baits and hands on deck, he is hawking every line convinced that every wave is a shark "nibbling" a bait. Well about 30 minutes before dark the spinning rod starts screaming, its clearly not a wave so hes hooked up and beaches a nice bull shark quickly. I took 3 pictures but couldnt get the " I've been hit by a truck" look off his face.
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Next morning the birds are working hard before the sun is even up, tons of anchovies, and as the sun gets up the smacks are detroying them. So we walk out onto the 1st bar and start throwing gotcha plugs, complete a 2 man 30 fish limit in probably less than 40 minutes. now here is where it gets interesting a procession of bull sharks shows up about 30 deep moving very shallow up on the far side o the first bar, and I mean shallow backs out and eating anything they move. So i decide i will sight cast one with a live 10 inch skipjack with the tail clipped. I dont know what I expected but the sudden violence at 15 ft infront of me was impressive, hooked up and landed quickly.
[img][img=http://imageshack.us/a/img802/740/dscn1293m.th.jpg]
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So my friend sees this and thinks he will give it a try, even though he is a little hesitant to be that close to the frenzy. He hooks up quickly and after an interesting battle he lands a nice one with a much better picture.
[img][img=http://imageshack.us/a/img203/2405/dscn1292o.th.jpg]
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That evening we decide to relax to some good old fashioned redfishing with tail clipped finger mullet in the wade gut. Turns out to not be relaxing, last hour of daylight 6 slot reds boxed, one nice pup blacktip.
[img][img=http://imageshack.us/a/img513/523/dscn1286im.th.jpg]
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So now we are spent, had plans to stay till saturday, but with all goals achieved and a box full of fish we opt to pack it up thursday morning and cast our way out. Get packed and rolling at about 8am and hit a wide gut in the 30s full of activity and get into the smacks with gotcha plugs, box another 15 or so. Then my friend gets spooled for 170 yards of 30 pound braid and popped at the spool, which he is still talking about. a few minutes later a 5ft+ bull slams my gotcha plug right at the bar, at high speed so I lock down the drag and pop off to save some braid. We take this as an omen and hit the road. All in all it was a grest trip.
Fish totals: 10 sharks hooked, 5 landed all 5 to 6ft class, 45 smacks, 6 slot reds, 1 pup, 1 nice ray, 2 sore backs, and a newbie hooked for life!

[ltorna1]

great report! Sightcasting the skipjack to the sharks in shallow must have been a trip.
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[workinbird]

Dang!!! I want to do that too! Might change my plans and come on down to PINS this weekend!!! <*/)))><

[pinsfish]

Wow I am planing on a trip down this weekend. How was the drive.

Happy for you and hoping the same for me.

Thanks for the awesome report and getting me pumped.
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Protect our treasure PINS

[TomP]

Cool Pics thanks for sharing. Yes, you have a Rookie that's is really hooked.
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Hook'em and givem Dragggg !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[archipelligo]

on low tide the driving was a 10+, and as far as the rookie he will probably be dissapointed on a few trips, he got a real fast start