Well......I finally took care of some never ending business and was able to prep the boat for a much needed trip. As luck always has it I didnt make it to the comforts of my bed until 1am. Not good when you have to wake up at 5:45 am. Venturing to Homestead solo to meet up with my friend Dave and his father inlaw with very little sleep was not very fun but I managed. Headed out the channel in search for some bait. When bait was finally secured we headed out to the reef in search of ballyhoos and maybe a tail or two. Had plenty of pinfish in the well so we wanted to get some bally's for some of the finicky fish out there. after a couple of hours fishing and chumming, there wasnt a hoo to be found. All the while , we were catching some decent tails and I managed to put a live pinfish on the bottom. we were only in 45ft of water but Ive seen some big critters in shallow so it didnt hurt to drop a livey. After a while something slammed the pinfish but missed the hook. I checked the bait and noticed the nice sice teeth marks on the now dead pinfish. I rerigged and dropped a fresh one and a few minutes later it gets slammed. Im hooked solid and come up with a hefty Mango. Scaled out to 5.4lbs. Ok now we are cooking. We moved to a deeper spot in hopes of a repeat of last weekend. After some more chumming, I am tight with a nice tail. Current was ripping north so it made for a long haul bringing these fish in. Not far from the boat....my bottom rod goes off. Pandamonium....as I hand the rod to Dave and come tight with what seemed to be a small volkswagon. Dave quickly takes care of the tail and is at my right now with gaff in hand. He manages to glance at his rod at the bow and it takes off. Beautiful....double hookup. I finally get my fish to the surface and see its a nice size black. I reached in and secured him and now have the gaff in hand for Daves fish. If I thought I had volkswagon...then Dave hooked himself a hummer. He was using a light action rod with his brand new Okuma reel spooled with braid. It was test time for the little Okuma. After what seemed like an eternity.....and a gruelly tug of war with Dave.....up comes the biggest, and I mean the biggest nurse shark I have ever laid my eyes on. My guess it was pushing 200lbs and with that current...felt more like 400 lbs. Talk about hard work only to be disappointed. Dave was starting to feel the pressure...lol. Just messing with ya Dave. Anyhoo, Dave reset and not to long after managed a nice mutton. Not much in quantity but very good in quality. Enjoy the pictures. I included some pics from last weekend.
My Sunrise
fist tail
Nice Mango
Mr Black
End of my day
Mutton from last week
Black from last week
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