Not like going down the pond chasin' bluegills and tommycods

We're talking about Shark.

There are a TON of kingfish in the surf... near high tide yesterday there was a fairly strong rip current from the 15knot steady NE wind coming down beach.

As the tide went out, and after a few keeper kingfish, I settled down, threw a kingfish head out and finally had some sniffs from toothy customers.

I really had a king head out looking for a drum, weak, blue, basically anything but a shark.
That is, it was on a straight mono leader. I was sitting there basking in the sun, dogs on my lap (yeah, both of them)... when zing over the rod went.

After fighting to get it out of the holder I knew this was no bluefish. For a moment I thought "Ray" but I felt the tail hitting the line and my thoughts went to whether the small 3/0 hook had found a nice corner of the mouth.

After a 5 minute battle that attracted a few drive-by viewers, boink... the mono parted.

ok, so get a wire leader, rig a hook, throw the next head out.  Two minutes later the rod doubles and after a shorter fight ... BOINK!  one of the clips went.

Dang, now I was ticked (at the sharks and myself). Rigged up a longer and stronger wire leader (ie, made sure there were no weak links in the terminal hardware. Of course, by now, whoever had taken the previous two heads moved on.

A half hour later we were about ready to wrap up. In fact, I was packing up and washing everything off when over the rod went.

What a beautiful finish to summer fishing!

Fishing for Bait - Part 3

Standing in the gentle surf, late afternoon on a September mid-week day, a gentle sea breeze keeping the air cool and bugs away

I kick off my sandals, set up a chair for my wife, and put out a few rods. We watch grandparents gathering their young charges up for the ride home, boogy boards and toys gathered up in the beach buggy. Downbeach, surfers head out to catch the light swells, never anxious to see a summer wane as school approaches.

I was really hoping to get a shark to tug on one of the lines, but wasn't to be.

Not this evening anyways.

Had a couple of fellows up beach who had NOAA tags at the ready for any toothy critters, but they had no success either.

Meanwhile, small snappers are found in the back bays, as well as running the surf, and were destroying the mullet rigs I put out for a while. Too small to be hooked on a 2/0, but big enough to have teeth that rip apart bait!

Thankfully, a few beautiful Northern Kingfish have swarmed the surf. Bigger ones out deep with the smaller kings available on a light rod, just to keep you busy while waiting for some more challenging take on another rod

The setting sun all golden paints shadows in the sand

Slowly it fades now as nighttime begins to fall

Life is like that shadow, slowly grows, then fades away

Have you taken time to share with someone?

Share something of a New Hope found only in the Son!

Fishing for "Bait" - part 2

my "fishing for bait" season hasn't only been limited to freshwater:

Brigantine is generally overcrowded and flat, fish move through in spurts.

I've had a tough time the past couple of years, showing up on the "shoulda been here yesterday" type of times, but at least there have been a few kingfish around... very tasty panfish.