Sorry I haven’t been updating the blog as much as I should have lately. We get rolling in our fishing season and just don’t get around to it as much as we should. The good news is there’s been plenty of sharks out there to catch the last few weeks! We have been fishing aboard my boat, the Bn’M II. Way offshore on the humps there has been some big dusky sharks. We had a 14 year old kid catch and release a 300 lb dusky shark at the end of December. The Shark fishing near the reef has been good for the Bull Sharks. They are big bruisers and great fighters! We let one go around 200 lbs we caught on stand up tackle a few days ago, and the week before that we also let go another big bull shark around the same size. There’s also been some small atlantic sharpnose sharks on the reef too. They are fun little fighters on light tackle! Send me an email at bnmcharters@gmail.com when you are ready to go catch your monster shark!
I had Mark and his 3 boys out on the Bn’M II yesterday, and they wanted to catch a monster shark! I told them Florida Keys Shark fishing is as good as anywhere, if not the best! Mark had fished with the Legendary Frank Mundus off Montauk many times before, and wanted his kids to experience the battle of a big shark. We headed offshore of Islamorada about 13 miles in rough conditions, but 20+ knots of wind was going to keep the 36′ Jersey Devil back on land. We decided to try to catch some blackfin tuna first, but every time we hooked up, the sharks ate them before we could get them to the boat! Well I know we were in the right spot, and finally we got a few tuna in the boat. We rigged up the 80 wide rod and reel and sent down a fresh shark bait on a 16/0 circle hook. I like to use circle hooks to help insure a healthier release on the fish. We didn’t get a bite the first drift, but we made a second drift, and the rod doubled over!
shark fishing
Brian got in the fighting chair and harnessed up. I figured it was dusky shark, because that’s what had been out there lately. The shark wouldn’t give up though. I started to doubt it was a dusky, because we had been working on the fish for close to an hour! We went up and up on the drag, till we hit 35 lbs of pressure. Finally we got the leader on the fish. It took a few looks, but then I realized we had on the biggest dusky shark I had ever seen! The fish had a huge belly on him!
dusky in water
We were all in shock when Josh took some wraps on the leader and pulled the beast up to the side of the boat. The dusky shark was every bit of 500 lbs! Brian was out of breath but happy the battle was over. We took a few pics in the rough weather and then headed back to the reef to finish up the day. Mark said he had never heard of a dusky shark that big, but we did look in the record books and there has been fish over 700 lbs reported years back. It wasn’t a record, but it was a new best in my Book!!!
500 lb dusky shark
If you want to try your hand at a monster shark let me know and I’d be happy to get your out there! Send me an email at bnmcharters@gmail.com
