Author: David Sobiek
4th Of July 2018 Shark Fishing Report
"I heard the most beautiful noise a shark fisherman can hear, that shark was peeling line letting that clicker scream."
To start off, this was the most American weekend ever, July 4th weekend. So, you knew that it was going to be a good one.
Well we started by breaking out our 1000lb grander leader and bullbuster tackle and made plenty of rigs the morning of the 3rd. (beings North Topsail LOVES eating leaders) Then that afternoon we all loaded up one of the coolers with drinks and ice, and the second with the bait, that night we had plenty of skipjack and blackfin tuna. With the surf calm at 1-2ft, we hit the beach around 6pm as usual. Instantly, after unloading the truck and got set up, we started dropping baits.
First, we dropped a smaller section of a skipjack attached to a 20/0 circle hook about 250 yards from the surf using and Avet 50w. While rigging the 130VXS, the Avet started to peel line, so within minutes we had our first run of the night. With a very uneventful fight, approximately five minutes, we had a four foot bait thieving blacktip on the sand. We pulled the hook and pushed him back to freedom. We quickly rigged another slightly larger piece back on the Avet and ran her again. This time, I finished rigging a whole blackfin on the 130 and we sent her 500 yards off the beach to soak.
A few hours later, the sun fell and we hung the chem lights. Before you knew it, we had 15-20 friends behind us, how they all got them memo that night was rather impressive. An hour or two and no love on the reels, we decided to pull ‘em in. Starting with the 130, we realized we were fishing on credit. So we loaded up the her up with a fresh blackfin and ran it 500 yards. Then we pulled in the 50w and AGAIN robbed by little ones. We loaded it up and sent it, only this time in the middle of the bait drop I noticed the 130’s rod tip bouncing and it wasn’t a rhythm like waves make it do, so I figured it was a little one. I no more than turned around to grab a drink from my cooler and all of a sudden, I heard the most beautiful noise a shark fisherman can hear, that shark was peeling line letting that clicker scream. I let the shark run for about 10 seconds and proceeded to walk the drag up slowly. As soon as I felt that the circle hook worked to the corner of the mouth, I ran the drag up to strike and felt that shark dig deep and started moving to the open ocean. At this point my buddy and come back from running the bait and noticed we were hooked up.
Luckily, she only ran like 50 yards like that and gave up, turning her head. Personally, I will put as much drag as possible to stop the fish as soon as possible, just to try and bring them in green. After 30 or so minutes, I reeled the shark into the surf and my friend went to tail rope her. He said as soon and he saw the tail, he knew she was decent. As he was bringing her into the more shallow surf I grabbed the bolt cutters and the tagging pole. Instantly, I stuck the tag in her back and cut the hook so it didn’t impede her later on after we pushed her out. Quickly, we got a measurement of 11 feet 1 inch, found out that she was a female, and snapped a quick photo before letting her go. The best part was we didn’t have to hold her in the surf to let her get the energy to leave, she took right off. By far the best experience to date shark fishing. Great memories with family and friends! So now I’m still chugging away hoping to break the 12 foot mark soon, just so I can turn around and hope and pray for the 14 foot mark.
Who knows, could be this upcoming weekend! Tight lines!
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