Deep sea – Islamorada Shark Fishing

Now is prime time to go monster shark fishing in Islamorada! We left on the Bn’M II yesterday morning and the plan was to go vertical jigging, and then head to the hump to try for a big shark. When we hit the first spot we found some AJ’s, but the sharks had found them too! We managed to catch a handful of who ones, but the sharks got a few of them too!

I thought about shark fishing in the first spot, but I really felt confident with heading to the hump where the sharks school up this time of year. It can be a feeding frenzy on the spawning amberjack. We sent down a live jack on one rod, and put a dead bait near the surface. Before we got the live jack down we had a bite! Colin got in the chair and went to work. After about 20 minutes we got a visual on the beast!

We could tell it was a nice size shark. Once we got him closer up on the leader we identified it as a very large bull shark! Well over 300 lbs!

After taking a few pics we cut the leader and the big fish swam away. It was Colin’s first bull shark, and it was a darn nice one!

We made a few more drifts over the hump, and each time we had a bite. I think we used up all our luck though, because we lost one more shark after a 15 minute fight, and the other few bites got our bait off the hook. It was a fun day though, and I am looking forward to the rest of April, as well as Shark fishing May! Send me an email if you want to try to catch JAWS! bnmcharters@gmail.com

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

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!

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!

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!!!

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

Capt. Nick Stanczyk

Tag: Deep sea

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