Tide: -0.7ft @ 8:30pm
May and June are probably the best months for shark fishing in my area. Sharks of all variety chase schools of bait and schools of tarpon up the coast during this time. Tonight we decided to put some shark baits out on Sanibel for the first time in a while. Tim, Matt, and I couldn't catch any fresh bait at Ft. Myers Beach but our buddy Jeff had a bunch of frozen jack in his bait freezer that he brought for us. We arrived at the beach a little bit early and casting some lures in the surf. We caught trout and snook, nothing big. Around 7pm we setup on the beach. By 7:30 we had 4 lines in the water. My bait got hit right away but dropped the bait immediately. Ten minutes later Jeff's 9/0 goes off. Jeff ran over to the rod and set the hook and he was on. The shark was pulling line out on a TIGHT drag but after 15 seconds or so the hook pulled. After reeling the line in we saw that the circle hook had been straightened!
After that Jeff's other rod went off but we missed the hookset. Jeff would redeploy both of his rods and it didn't take long for Jeff to hook up again. This time the hook stuck and after a 10 minute fight we had our first shark of the year at 6'6. Jeff tagged the shark and we set her on her way. During that fight Tim's and my rod went off. It was starting to get hectic but Tim's bait was dropped while I hooked up on mine. The fish felt pretty heavy but I wasn't sure what I had on since it's been awhile since I've fought a shark from the beach. Ten to fifteen minutes later the shark showed and it was another lemon! This one taped out at 7'9. After the release we all deployed our baits once again and waited for a little over an hour without another hit. We decided to call it an early night at 10:10pm.
