The wind is howling !!. In all the years that I have been coming to the Keys I cannot ever recall the wind blowing so hard for so long. My shipmate today is Keith Arthur and we are once again on board Windy Day with Captain Jack Kelly.

We had a team meeting to plan our options for the day. Our plan was a cunning one, we knew that the tides in the harbour were wrong in the morning for Tarpon so we decided to go back to Jew Fish Basin to fish for Sharks on the outgoing tide.

We anchored up and started chumming with our Barracudas and Lady fish that we caught yesterday. As the sun got higher we started to see the shadows of the sharks coming up the flat on our chum line. The water is around 6 feet deep and they look like silent submarines. Every time one came towards our baits, which were chunks of Barracuda on a 6/0 circle hook down to 14 inches of wire, we hummed the music to Jaws. Even Captain Jack who is as dry as they come joined in.

First fish to me; it was a Dusky Shark about 100lbs

Then it was Keith’s turn with a Lemon Shark

As the sun got higher the visibility got better and every so often we see a monster shark hanging back from the pack, these were possibly big Bull Sharks. We alternated between Lemon and Dusky Sharks for the next two hours.

As you can see this is all relatively light spinning tackle. My trusty Penn 950 SSM reel must have now caught a couple of thousand pounds of fish this trip. I match it with my favourite travel rod an Abu uptider without the extension. I have said this many times if you only have one rod to take anywhere for sea fishing around the world this is the rod to take. Its light glass tip is forgiving especially when you fish with Superlines and you can bend this rod severely. My reel easily holds 400yards of the new 50lb Fireline braid and plenty of backing to go with it. I don’t like to be undergunned when there are monster nasties around. These Penn fixed spool reels might not look modern, but one thing is for certain they will take some severe punishment.

We were getting ready to go back to Key West when I saw a monster shark approaching my bait. Bail open and the mandatory count to five, close the bail, point the rod and wind. Then hang on.

The Shark raced off and the drag smoked, but I could still see the monster shark in the chum line, so what was emptying my reel with a substantial amount of drag?. I decided to play my old trick on Keith so that he would take the rod. I told him I needed some action pictures of him and he fell for it.

I could see the last few turns of super line on the spool that meant that this fish was almost 400yards away. I threw the anchor on to the buoy and we gave chase with Keith looking very angrily at me, he knew I had conned him.

But what was on the end of the line?. Now Keith does not take prisoners and after a bit of huffing and puffing we were on top of our fish. I had only foul hooked a substantial Dusky in the fin that Keith is holding, no wonder it did not stop.

Be it a shark or a carp, if you hook them here then they are going to take a bit of getting in.

The tide was slacking so we decided to race back to Key West to fish the last of the incoming tide off Fleming Key for Tarpon.

Our standard tackle for this game is a twenty-pound outfit with Big Game mono and a multiplying reel. We chum with Mahora cut into three pieces and on a good day can use three 50lb sacks of chum. 12 feet of 50lb Flourocarbon leader to my favourite 4/0 circle hook is attached to the 20 lb test and you free line back among your chum.

We anchored among the boats and within minutes Keith hooked a big Tarpon.

Hold on tight Keith, these buggers can PULL

This was a big fish and it looked likely that we were going to have to dodge a few anchor ropes

Tarpon are experts at throwing hooks whilst jumping. The advice from the experts is to lower the rod when the fish jumps, hence the saying "Bow to the King"

After untangling the line from the anchor ropes of three sailboats, the Tarpon then tried to jump into someone else's boat before we were finally able to safely release it.

Minutes later it was my turn for some action.

Another Tarpon sets sail for freedom

My reel screamed as a 130lb Tarpon went skywards

130 lbs of muscle does a dance on the surface

I had put Keith on the camera and he shot these awesome pictures.

You would not believe how difficult it is to get a leaping fish on a still camera. To get two is quite unbelievable.

This fish was a beast and I played it hard for almost 30 minutes before we released it. We lost a third in the ropes after this.

What a day, loads of big Sharks and Jumped three huge Tarpon in less than 90 minutes.

Our other shipmates were out with Captain Damon, loads of fish, too busy to take any good pictures. Lemon Geoff did some serious weight training with a big Hammerhead Shark. Needless to say Harry the Hammerhead whipped his arse.

Another great day in paradise. I am tired and battle scarred, my shipmates are all in bed and I am struggling to keep awake. What will tomorrow bring? Watch this space.

For lots more information about the fishing in Key West see the light tackle fishing website.