Mike (Wally15) and Joes Fishing Adventures

[JoePlo]

Mike and I linked up again 20-21 September and tore up the fish both days.

Day 1: Target Red Snapper

Spent a good while on one spot and couldnt get a bite. Decided to move over about a mile and limited out in ~30min.



Day 2: Target grouper, AJs

Took an extra long boat ride to hit some optimal grounds. Couldnt have had a better day. Ended up being as calm as it can get. Caught limit of Red Grouper rather quickly and then started to wrestle with some AJs. I picked up a respectable 31" fish that barely fit in the cooler. Then Mike had to out-do me and winch up a solid ~40" AJ. Needless to say he definitely didnt fit in the cooler. Amazing day.

[alantani]

great photos!!!!!!

[theswimmer]

Nice fish,
Nice Boat!

[Shark Hunter]

You Go Mike!
Great Job Guys!

[Dominick]

That's livin large.  Thanks for the report and photos.  Dominick

[JoePlo]

26 September shall be marked as the day that someone out fished me. Mike and I headed out again in search of some grouper. What a strange chain of events that made for a challenging day.

- Weather forecast: 3/4 sources said <1ft seas with winds 5-10 NE shifting to the S <10 and seas calm. We left the canal and clearly this was not accurate. Easily 10-15 NE wind. This wind did not cease the entire day.

- The bait: I cast netted a few pinfish and then we headed out to the buoy to catch some hardtails. As we threw the baits in, they more or less died immediately. Didnt really dawn on us until later on that we filled the well in the canal with very warm feeling water which may have been oxygen deficient. Had we cycled out the water the baits may have lived. Overall we made it to the grouper spot with 4 live baits 

Overall Mike was holding his mouth just the right way and he caught 3/4 groupers. Then we spent a solid 2.5 hrs slow rolling through the 2-4fters which were supposed to be <1. Great trip overall, learned a lot and excellent fishing partner as always. Didnt take pics till today but here are the fish and mini-me who absolutely loves everything to do with fish/fishing.

[Alto Mare]

Very nice, thanks for the report. Love that last pic, nice pose big guy.

[Wally15]

What? No mention of the 6' shark I hoisted out of 170' of water, Joe! That was way too much work for an old man like me. Thank goodness Alan T. talked me into buying a couple of Penn 16 VSX's instead of additional upgrades to my 113HN and other Senators. That low gear is NICE. I even got Joe using one.
Daron, what kind of shark is this? The largest beast I have ever gotten to the boat. Fortunately, he took one look at Joe as he broke the surface, it scared the heck out of him, and he broke the 80# mono leader and took off. Or, what I call my "professional release".
And Joe was sticking his arm and GoPro into the water to video the shark. I don't know of any one armed helicopter pilots. Of course, I don't know many sane ones either.
Yesterday (Sunday 9/27) the weather was supposed to be decent until afternoon thunderstorms. Not so! Woke up to light rain so we cancelled the "state waters" red snapper trip. It's STILL raining 24 hours later. Need to ship some of this weather to CA.
Mike

[Tightlines667]

Mike,
Without consulting the GOM shark guides (they are up on this forum somewhere?), I would say you caught yourself a Sandbar Shark there.  I am basing this on size/shape/location of the dorsal fin (large'triangular-shaped w/ insertion near mid-point of pecs.), length of head (tip of nose to dorsal insertion equal to 2X dorsal fin base), pectoral fin size/shape (large triangular), and overall impression of the animal (stocky/angular/tall back).  I would also suspect that the mouth is set closer to the tip of the nose then it is wide (eleminates Bignose). 

[Dominick]

I consulted Goadby, Peter Salt Water Game Fishing (1991) page 147.  The closest I can come from the diagram and description is it is  a Blue Shark. Dominick

[Shark Hunter]

Looking at the Tail and the Dorsal. It looks like a spinner to me. JMO

[RowdyW]

Daron, I think a Spinner has black tips on their fins & dorsal. They are often confused with Blacktips.

[Shark Hunter]

This is a spinner.
From the shape of the mouth, the tail and the Size of the Dorsal and Pectoral fins. I think that is what Wally had on the line. Typical for that area.