Checking in from Florida. Lots of pics.

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Most may not care that i left, or was even ever here, but i did make some good friends in the socal kayak community and they taught me a lot about the big water fishing. Most of them know, and now you do too, that my true passion was fishing the surf. Not for perch and corbina but critters that would make my 30 and 40lb class, 12 to 13ft surf rods bend in half and peel 12lbs of drag like it was nothing. There was nothing more exciting than battling a 200lb bat ray up and down the beach for over an hour, watching a soupfin do ballet just beyond the breakers or live lining a perch to leopard sharks that would blow away the IGFA record. Although these occurrences did not happen every outing, I was still blessed with the presence of smaller models that would still give it their all to defy my fresh mono and greased carbon fiber just about every other day.

Having to leave this paradise was no easy task and i can't deny I did find ways to put it off. Especially after finding ways to catch WSB from shore. Eventually my efforts were useless and I moved to the Florida Panhandle on orders from good old Uncle Sam.

Little did I know... My new home is a surf fishing and kayak fishing mecca!

Jan. 26^th 2013
Been trying some beaches around here. Last three times we got a bunch of hardheads ( saltwater catfish). Today we tried a new spot down in destin. I hit up the local fish market and took some scraps off their hands.

Set ups were a 12 ft surf rod ( star rods stellar 12 ft 20-40 lb 4-12oz) with a sealine 50, 30 lb mono and pulley rig with 210 lb wire and 10/0 gama j hook. The other was a penn 9/0, 50 lb mono with 30ft 250 lb mono to 6 ft 400 lb wire and 10/0 gama hook.

We decided to end our session at 6:30 weather we caught something or not. Started at 3 pm and had 2 bulls clean out my chum line and one good hit I missed but seen the shark go air born. Yes there are mako in the surf here but this was a blacktip or bull. 6:12 rolls around and I bring in the 9/0. Start folding up the leader and my long rod goes off. Just after 6:30 I have my first Florida shark landed. A sand bar. From tip to tip it was just over 6 ft and my guess over 120 lbs.






[img]http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i214/katguy/fishing/image-2.jpg[/img]




Feb . 2^nd 2013

Hannah and I took our weekly trip to the beach yesterday. a couple of the guys im going to school with stopped by to check it out and made landing these beasts a little easier.

our first hookup was around 4pm. hannah was on it but after only 5 or 6 seconds the main line broke. i think i may have messed up my uni knot to the 100lb shock leader... bummer. but i got her set up and back in the water in no time.

soon after my rod takes off and i finally get to put a bend in my CUI since getting here.



after a good 15 mins i have her over the sand bar and in the wade gut. another 5 and i wrestler her on shore.

6'8" and prego! explains why she was so sluggish.






soon after hannah hooks up again and after 5 mins im confident my knots will hold.


then my rod goes off again and its a double!


i land mine before she does and it went 6'9"

shes still on for another 10 mins. when finally she comes over the sand bar and we're able to get her on the beach




7'1" and fat!


after the releases i get both rods back in the water and bring in the bait i had kayaked out earlier. it had some marks but nothing was big enough to take the whole thing.

just before sunset


yep. hooked up again!

45mins later Hannahs still going strong and she's starting to fill her spool back up. it had taken her down to the last 1/4 of line.


finally beach it after an hour and its 7' 1/4"


she wants me to make it clear that she's not sitting on the shark. she's just squating down with a leg over it.




Feb 9^th 2013
our weekly beach trip didn't start out so hot. first two stops were for bait and the fish market that usually gives up the best left over amber jack and grouper had nothing but shrimp heads and shells in the scraps bucket... :shock:
however, we lucked out and recieved the bloodiest scraps of tuna and AJ from the shop down the street. 8)

hit the sand and got our baits out. first up was tuna skin with 1/4" of meat still attached. 8"x2" and folded in half, hooked though the folded top and out it went.

I also upgraded the handle on my sealine 50. it was a pain to reel under pressure and Hannah says it was a good investment.


anyways. tuna is out. my rod gets picked up and its on! well. for about 10 seconds. i got a few good head shakes and she broke the surface with her tail and rolled then came unbuttoned. got everything back. not sure exactly what happens so i'm just going to say she was so big the circle hook couldnt get a hold on her mouth. :lol:

after what looked like some perch hits we brought in both rods, rebaited with AJ and got them back out.
well didn't take long and Hannah is hooked up!


65 mins later im dragging this monster up the beach.
7'1" and pissed!






a nice crowd had formed during the fight pretty much did nothing but get in the way. Hannah ran into people 5 or 6 times trying to back up or move down the beach to get in front of the shark and when it came time to tail it i was blocked by 3 people and almost tripped over the line... :roll:

so we got her released and then set out new baits. started packing up and my rod goes off and i hook into it. horsed it in in 15 mins and sent Hannah in to tail it...

bad idea putting such a green shark on the beach.


she came out to about 6'6" and between her being so energetic and the drunken bystanders it was best to just get her back in the water and on her way. so no pics of that one.



Feb. 17^th 2013

Hannah and I decided sat. wouldn't work out due to the 22mph onshore winds and the temp. being a hight of 47 and low of 32.... so we opted for a high on 55 and 5mph winds on sunday. worked out pretty well. :lol:

we got set up around 2pm. i yakked a bait out about 300 yards and dropped a little chum around it. peddled back in and chummed up the first gut and then thew some down about 50 yards out from shore to get the bait fish in the area. saw a group of oversize reds, 3 that were well over 30" and two about 24" following them. pretty cool to see from the yak.

made it back in and then cast out the long rods. had them at 80 and 100yards. one deep in the gut and one on the drop off. clickers were silent pretty much all day.



i did get a hit on the 9/0, it got picked up and went slack. i tried to catch up to it but couldn't then finally felt the weight. got it in and all the meat had been sucked off and the skin was still on the hook... bummer.



sun finally went down and i got a good run, had to do a 60 yard sprint to get to it and when i engaged the reel the fish spit the hook. so i rebaited and got it back out. not as far but 20 mins later i was hooked up! as im fighting the fish the 9/0 which i had just redeployed into the first gut, was screeming.... man i love the sound of a big penn going off! hannah is on it and hooks up, then its off... the 50lb mainline broke. clean break and my topshot and leader is now gone! sucks to lose all that gear and have a shark trailing it. anyways, fish on and its not very big. doesn't take long and i have a little 6fter beached.



get her back in the water and get another bait out. we wait for about 30 mins and decide its too cold and were going to pack it in.... then my reel starts screeming!

VIDEO! its not the best quality but i wanted to get something together.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gYAT...ature=youtu.be

land a 6'10" sand bar in about 25 minutes. maybe a couple more.



after that we went home... glad to be warm.

Sat. Mar. 2nd 2013

Yesterday turned out better than i had expected. It was windy, cold, the beach had changed a lot since last week, but, we scored plenty of bait and I brought my 20lb set up and shrimp to try for something different.

I kayaked a red snapper head out about 300 yards, then put some slices of grouper in the first gut on the long rods. i had the snapper head on a float. the float was attached to 50ft of 50lb mono then to a rock that had 12lb mono wrapped around it and a loop connection. i hung the snapper several feet under the float and hoped a Mako would be cruising by.


the smaller bait rod paid off. first hook up was on it and i was fighting what was comparable to a 50" class leopard shark. after a 7 or 8 min. tussle i had this 32" spotfin, i mean black drum on the beach.



soon after my 9/0 is bent over and screaming. I hook into it and its peeling 16-18lbs of drag like nothing. does a good 60 yard run then starts to turn. I kept watching the horizon but there was no jumping going on so I started to think it might be a bull.



got her to the beach and its a 84" (7ft) sand bar. My first shark i get to tag. I was using a 10/0 owner super mutu with the barb removed. made for an easy un hooking process.





She swam off, now known as #352614





got another bait out. this time just on the bottom and about 300 yards as well.



not too long after i hook up! while im hooked up something picked up the shrimp and Hannah was on it. She landed a huge redfish and it looked longer than the drum i had landed. I got the phone ready to take a pic while i had the 9/0 in my hand and she turned and said she just wanted to release it. so back it went with no pic.

got the shark in, another sandy and another tag.




we stay another few hours hoping to use the last tag. not much went on until Hannahs long rod goes off. she hooks up and the line breaks. 3rd break off with the big game solar collector green. not long after my long rod goes off, Hannah hooks up and the white/clear big game mono holds just fine. for the 6th or seventh shark. that solar collector stuff is going in the trash.

Hannah gets her sand bar in and we get the last tag in and send her on her way.


called it a night after that.

hope you guys enjoyed the pics.

and don't think its all rays of sunshine and flat surf out here...