Great day on the Pastime Princess

[Newell Nut]

Every day is different. AJs finally decided to bite on this trip and I hauled in 3 on my new GTS70H Hercules that I extended. Laid the fore grip on the rail and let them pound on it till they got tired. Then mango Elli hooks something that almost took her over. I had to relieve her of the rod and after quite a hard fight I pulled up an 8 foot shark and this was all done with a Newell 332 and 40 lb Momoi Diamond. The drag screamed a lot and the handle nut got quite hot but the Newell won the battle. Captain Al Coley boated and really nice King Mac on a Viking jig. Three cobias were caught and one barely knocked me out of the JP on the balance beam.
You shark guys can tell the species of shark since I don't know. I did see a tag that looked like it had been hanging on him for a long time and covered in green slime.

[redsetta]

Good times!

[rjones]

I tought the limit on AJs was one per person

[Newell Nut]

I kept the smallest and gave the two big ones to lucky fisherman that had nothing.

[Alto Mare]

Turned Captain Al right-side up, he has many more years left before he lays on his side


I got to get on that boat soon ....
very nice gentlemen!

[Shark Hunter]

Best I can tell Dwight. Its a Spinner. They have those pointy snouts and big fins. Pretty common in your area.

[Newell Nut]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/deepseafishingdaytona/sets/72157655062476281

Hope this link works so you see more of the trip today.

[Shark Hunter]

Great shots Dwight! Keep living that Dream. Its like vacation every week!

[Tightlines667]

Dwight,
The shark looks to me to be a Sandbar Shark, based on having a tall, triangular dorsal fin, set w/insertion forward of rear pectoral fin insertion and head length apox. equal to 2 dorsal fin widths, also large triangular pectoral fins, with no dusky black marking posteriorly.  They are quite common and the pop is still robust.

It would be interesting to see how the internals of this reel look after this battle (i.e. how did the reel hold up when pushed hard).

As always, thanks for sharing!

[Newell Nut]

The reel fished perfectly and will inspect tomorrow out of curiosity and report back.

[Shark Hunter]

I think your right John. I've never caught a sandbar. That slot behind the dorsal is a give away.

[newport]

I think you're right that it's a sandbar shark (aka brown shark). At first I was thinking the snout looked too pointy, but after looking at a few photos, I correct myself. Speaking of shark species, how do you identify between a blacktip reef shark and blacktip shark? I tried google images, but that just gets me more confused. For the longest time I thought they were the same species.

[Tightlines667]

Black-tip Reef sharks are actually very different critrers then black-tip sharks.  Black-tip reef sharks (BTR) are built to forage in very shallow water, while the black-tip shark forages along steeper drop offs, and structure in somewhat deeper water.  As such the overall body plan
of a BTR is more cylyndrical and elongated, the nose/snout is very short, the dorsal is set far back (well behind pectoral fin rear margins, when the animal swims it appears mire serpantine-like, or flexable, and weaker.  Also when on the surface the dirsal fin usually sticks out if the water 'crisply', and often w/o the tip of the tail out simultaneously.  The black tip on the dorsal really stands out since colr right next to it is often paler (may even be white) then the general overall color of the animal.  The actual key ID difference is the wider, clearly visable drak margin on the trailing edge of the caudal fin (tail), a dark tip on the anal fin, a markedly pointed tip to the dorsal fin, and a snout shorter then the jaw width.  Also, distinct nares (shape of nostril), and teeth.  If you happen to find yourself in the South Pacific, you may confuse this species with the 'Silver-tip Shark' which has white/silver margins surrounding the black tips.
After you see both species, you will likely find they are not too difficult to distinguish (as long as you get a good look at them).

For more info, I recommend checking out the few GOM and Atlantic Shark species (not my specialty) guides on this thread...

http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=14446.0


Ok...now forget all that technical stuff and just remember...
a small shark with a pointy black tip is a Black-tipped reef Shark.

Hope that helps?

BTW.. most species of sharks are 'Brown Sharks' that may appear grey when looking through the water.

[Dominick]

Dwight the link worked fine.  good group of pictures.  Dominick

[Shark Hunter]

Yes, it was! Keep those links coming Dwight! I wish I could be you for a few weeks!