Bahia Honda Yesterday

[DogDoc]

We downloaded yesterday's photos of our short tarpon trip at BH, but with spotty internet couldn't add them to last night's post.

Here is Bill Hooked up and happy!





He worked the fish in close and we leadered it in reasonable time for photos and a DNA sample.




Nice work on a nice fish....




Then all heck broke loose, again!!! While taking the hook out, David shouted "Shark!" and the big hammerhead was on us at boatside.







As I mentioned last night, this was a really big shark, well over 15 ft.


We've had three shark encounters there this week, two at the boat at the end of the fight, and one early on. The line was immediately cut on the first, and we didn't have time to do anything on the second. I blame myself for yesterday: we had seen a shark earlier, but he had disappeared for 10-15 minutes, and I was wrong to assume he had left. Trying to get a picture and DNA, I encouraged our crew to finish the fight and the shark took advantage of that. I'll know better next time (and should have known and done better this time).

Bert

[urbanRenewal]

Lucky David was watching out else the shark might have gotten a DNA sample along with the tarpon ! 15 feet sure makes a boat feel small eh?

Tom

[tj5485]

Great pictures! We're you using crabs? It seems the mullet are still producing quite well

[sparse grey]

Nice pics Brad & X2 on what Tom said.

[tj5485]

I have fished the bridges 4 times this year and haven't ran into a shark yet thank god. Never had that happen to me yet and not quite sure what to do when it does

[Got TA Go]

"Please Keep Arms and Legs inside the Vessel at all Times. "

Rob

[mtd885]

I cannot imagine how many Hammers frequent that area during the worm hatch! This is one of the reasons I switched to 12# on all my tarpon fly rods, so I can pop em off instead of bringing them to the boat.
Good advice Rob along with, Pilgrims with long muskets step back from the gunwale!

[tj5485]

I'm going to be crushed when it happens.

[TeamTeke]

Must be a descendent of Old Moe.

[DogDoc]

Our family's first encounter with Ole' Moe at Bahia Honda was in 1986, when he grabbed a tarpon one evening. I was catching, and Nancy was running the boat and the video camera (the old kind with a separate VCR recorder connected with a cord). He took a bite out of her (the tarpon, not Nancy) middle and then left.
Nancy was convinced he was "Going to eat us, too!", SO we ran back to BPK. We transferred the video to disc and have played it over and over for the kids, but this week's attacks were much more dramatic.

Must be a descendent of Old Moe.