We had visitors last week. Teresa’s cousin Melissa and her daughter Lilly were staying with us for a few days. Many times it is hard to tell if people are really fishing people or not, because while they seem to be interested in the idea, the look in their eyes tells me maybe they are not up to the uncomfortable elements that one must often face on the island to get to the fishing. Melissa seemed interested as she had fished before in Tennessee, but the idea of wading out into the ocean was not on her list of things she seemed willing to do to catch fish. Sometimes when I am up to my middle in the ocean around dusk and a weed drifts by and hits my leg, I wonder what in the world I am doing out there.
To make matters worse, the warm weather had hit, and with that came swarms of mosquitoes and no-see-ums; a dreadful pair of pests that can ruin any outdoor activity, but particularly a fishing excursion on the beaches where they seem to lie in wait for unsuspecting warm blooded, CO2 exhaling, sweet smelling visitors (and residents alike I should add). To go with the pests, the tides were such that dock fishing at night was a no-go, so the option available was trout in the grass flats which requires wading out into the water to get out to the fish. And to really seal the deal, when Melissa and Lilly were watching Jason and me from the beach wading out in the water, some other tourist fisher people down the way began jumping and screaming as they think they saw a small shark swimming around them “Ankle Biter!” they shouted. And they probably were right about that.
The other no-wading option from dock fishing would be shark fishing. Several times during the week we discussed shark fishing, and tested the waters (so to speak) to see if young Lilly might be interested, but it seemed the idea of a shark was quite scary. Of course we did not help the situation as we asked her if she would like to swim the bait out into the ocean for us, or just be the bait, etc. Melissa was interested however, and we suspected Lilly would be if she just got to the beach and watched the excitement – if there were any excitement to be had that is.
Since there was interest there had to be bait, and so I kept one eye on opportunities to catch something to use. But unless you catch a lady fish or jack crevalle for bait, then you cannot shark fish. And since the tides were such, no bait seemed available. One evening, in an attempt to defy the tides and pests, we decided to go down to the beach between the docks to try to catch a snook. But as expected, dead tides, bugs flying around, no-see-ums latched onto every body part, even those covered with “repellent”. I think I saw one of the larger mosquitoes reclining on my leg hair, legs folded, and actually drinking the layer of repellent off my skin before plunging his blood sucking beak into my skin. Fortunately, before we were forced to cut and run for our lives, I did manage to catch a small Spanish mackerel. Those are very bloody and oily fish, perfect for shark bait.
Since Melissa and Lilly were running out of days on the island, we needed to get out to the beach the next night and try to produce a shark. We headed to the beach at sunset, armed with bug spray, shark gear, and chairs to set up camp for a bit and hopefully wrestle with a shark or two. Unfortunately, that same bad tide cycle had produced a very fast moving current, filled with seaweed which makes keeping the bait in shark zone very difficult. Since we had few options, we decided to press on even under those difficult conditions. After a night in the outside refrigerator, our Spanish mackerel was nice and firm for slicing up into pieces. Experience has taught me that using smaller chunks catches smaller sharks, so I made three baits from the small fish in hopes of producing a small shark to satisfy the need, but not overwhelm the fisher person on the end of the pole with some monster bull shark.
After throwing out two separate poles, we waited for a while hoping for some action, but not really getting more than a constant sliding of the bait down the beach due to the seaweed collecting on the line. It would have been easy to end the struggle and pack it up, but we soldiered on with a steady game of reel in, shake off the seaweed, and reset. As all seemed lost, we finally had what seemed was an interested party moving the line a bit, but not really taking off with dinner as most often happens. When my patience with this suspected catfish had ended, I decided to pick up the pole and give it the old manual hook set when he least expected. As the fish on the end of the line made one more munch, I set the hook. The shark (oops spoiler alert) immediately jumped two times in short order, signaling we likely had a blacktip on the line. I had Melissa come over to take the rod and let her fight whatever it was in. Jason jumped in to provide some valuable instruction on how to fight the monster to the beach. Very dramatic pole pumping action with giggles and lots of excitement ensued. Oh yeah, and Melissa was pumped up as well…
Melissa Shark from David Bolme on Vimeo.
As the fight neared its end, the vicious predator was subdued and the brave Sir Jason grappled the fish into a position that he could be unhooked and admired for a minute for pictures and even a touch from Lilly. No matter the size, every shark looks pretty mean, especially when viewed from close up with special photo angles. Thanks to my daughter Robin for her special photo skills to make the smile of this shark and the smiles of the fishers the best they could be.
David