The wind has not eased at all, in fact it is even stronger, gusting 30mph plus. Today I am with Lemon Geoff on board Windy Day and Captain Jack Kelly. We had a cunning plan and had hoped that it would work. Plan A was to check out the Tarpon hot spots in the harbour, if we marked some Tarpon on the fish finder we would fish for them, if not we'd go back to Jew Fish Basin.

There were no Tarpon at home so we headed out to Jew Fish, and on the way we would try and catch a couple of Barracudas for shark bait. En route we joined up with Keith and Robin who were with Captain Damon trying to also catch some Cuda.

Windy Day following in the wake of Capt. Damon's boat

They did better than us and like true shipmates gave us one of their Cudas for bait to accompany our Bonitos. We anchored about 80 yards apart in a channel in Jew Fish Basin and put our chum into the water.

Capt. Damon fished about 80 yards away

Where we fish is about 6-8 feet deep and if the sun is in the right place and the tide is running you can see the sharks coming from way off across the flats. This is what makes this type of fishing so exciting.

The tide was still coming in and with the strong wind it meant that we were fishing towards our anchor rope, not good. We angled the boat and at least our chum was going away from the anchor. After about twenty minutes the first shadow appeared around our baits, then another joined it. We hummed the music to Jaws at this time. Like silent submarines in just six feet of water they cruised up and down the chum line tasting the blood from our hanging Bonito and Cuda.

I fish with an open bail holding the braid between my figures so I can feel the take. Suddenly the line slips through your fingers and you know instantly that the shadow below has picked up your bait. We were using substantial pieces of Cuda or Bonito on a 6/0 circle hook on a short length of 60lb wire.

Over the years I have found that long thick wire is a turn off and now I only use about 15inches, this I know gives you more pick ups. Count to five, close the bail and wind, no need to strike with a circle hook, only when it all goes tight do I whack it, and I mean whack it hard with several short jabs. If all goes to plan the next part is a little frightening, the braid screams off the reel and if your hand is in the wrong place you finish up with a very nasty burn.

First fish was a Lemon about 100lbs, followed by two Dusky Sharks around the same weight. Then a shout from Captain Jack who saw a monster cruise over the flat towards Lemon Geoff. A brilliant cast put the bait in front of the big black shadow; almost in slow motion the shark picked up the bait, then the mandatory count to five without panicking and Geoff closed the bail.

I cannot write the next few words he said in case children read this. The reel screamed and in a few seconds over 100 yards of 50 pound Fireline braid superline had raced off the spool. This was not a fish to fight with the boat ancored, so we gave chase; I hung on to Lemon Geoff in case he got pulled in.

Geoff holds on for dear life as the shark departs for the horizon

At one time the fish was almost 300 yards away and I could see the bottom of the spool.

Not much line left on there

Lemon Geoff is now a pro angler since my training. He kept his cool, well not quite as the sweat was falling off him. We closed the gap on the fish and left our shipmates behind as we were pulled down the channel. I gave words of encouragement, like "we need a bigger boat", and "do not get pulled in" to my shipmate. After 50 minutes and one should appreciate we are using only medium heavy spinning rods I could see the 50 pound test Stren Fluorocarbon leader.

I put Captain Jack on camera duty and slowly lifted the monster to the surface. As you can see from the pictures it is a Bull Shark and it was without doubt not coming in the boat with us.

Ray grabs the leader of one very nasty Bull Shark

Captain Jack did some great photography in difficult conditions. I carefully coached the shark into a good camera position, making sure my hands were well clear of its mouth.
If anyone watched C.S.I Miami the other week, the episode where the woman lost her leg, I reckon this was the same fish as it gave me a wink and a smile.

The tide now turned and our chum lane went for miles pulling fish from all over the flats, the only problem now was that we could not see them. A few more Lemon Sharks followed again up to 100lbs.

A Lemon Shark of around 100 lbs

It was nearly time to leave when I had a pick up. This fish did not race off and I told Captain Jack that it was a Nurse Shark. “ How do you know that” asked Jack?. I said “30 years of experience”  to which he replied “yeah right” which is our new saying.

Normally Nurse Sharks just plod around like this fish was doing, problem was that it kept plodding away from me and my reel was smoking. My big Penn had 400 yards of 50lb Fireline Braid on it and 200 yards had already gone.

Line was streaming from the Penn 850

I asked Captain Jack to throw the anchor. He slowly walked to the bow and started to pull the anchor because we were leaving anyway, my fish was now 300 yards away. When he had pulled the anchor and strolled back I could see the backing as he cranked up the engines. Off we went in pursuit with a voice saying “still a Nurse Shark Roy ?” I was now facing some serious embarrassment, even if it turned out to be a monster Nurse Shark as no Nurse Shark should be able to fight that hard. Fortunately the enemy moved over a sandy bottom and I could see it was no Nurse. I wound the leader into the top ring, which then counts as a release and gave Geoff the rod and put Jack on camera duty.

Ray's Bull Shark - Another customer with a serious attitude problem

As you can see it was a Bull Shark with some nasty attitude. A couple of seconds after this photograph its tail just missed my face as it smashed into the side of the boat.

Smile for the camera

What a great day for us. The most important tackle today was our Stren 50 lb fluorocarbon leader material. After landing our big Bull Sharks several feet of it were very badly abraised by the rough skin, but it still held. In several places it was almost 50% worn through.

Our other Shipmates, Keith and Robin were with Captain Damon just 80 yards away and they had a ball as well. Several big Lemon Sharks and two Black Tip sharks that will really smoke your reel. Radomir our cameraman was with them and had some superb footage with terrific underwater shots. You will see this on Keith’s show Tight Lines soon. Keith also caught a nice Jack Crevalle that doesn't look at all happy with life.

The Jack didn't need to worry, it was safely back in the ocean within seconds of this picture being taken

Incidentally, we use circle hooks wherever practical, in this case 6/0, note how the hook is always in the side of the fishes mouth.

The circle hook is in the side of the mouth, a safe hook hold and very easy to remove (with a very long unhooking tool)

All of our sharks are returned alive, most were much too big to bring on board. However Keith caught the smallest of the day and decided it needed its photo taking for posterity, although maybe it was just Keith wanting to get in front of a camera again.

Keith posing with the smallest shark in the entire ocean.

The weather forecast for tomorrow is a little better, so we're hoping to move away from shark fishing and target some of Key West's other fishy inhabitants.