Tide: -0.5ft Low at 7pm, 2.4ft High at 2am
Wednesday night I hit a flat an hour before sunset to get shark bait. The tide started coming in at 9:30, well after darkness settled. Luckily the full moon overhead lit the flat up and I was able to battle a 60lb ray to the kayak. So last night I went out solo to Tiger Avenue and put the ray to use. I got baits out at sunset...a 15lb wing on the 12/0 sent 400 yards out and a 10lb chunk on the TLD25 70 yards out.
I changed into dry clothes and then started watching a movie to kill time. Something in the surf caught my eye 30 minutes into the movie as the full moon lit up the beach. It looked like a dorsal fin so I ran to the waterline to get a closer inspection. It was a HUGE lemon cruising the first gut! I followed it north for awhile until it headed offshore. I went back to my movie.. not 5 minutes later I saw the dorsal again. I ran to it with the camera this time and saw that it was a smaller lemon this time, about 6.5ft. I snapped a quick pic right before it headed offshore...
With lemons cruising inside the bar and a tide quickly rushing in, I knew a clicker was going to go off shortly. Sure enough the glowstick on the 12/0 shot out fast and steady just like clockwork. Surprised that the short bait didn't get picked up first. I let it eat good then hit it with a strong hookset. Fish on but felt small. A couple minutes later and I get a blacktip on the beach.
After the release I rigged up another leader for the third bait deployment of the night. As I inched the kayak toward the surf, the TLD25 went off. Great timing! I cranked the lever to full drag and let the shark set the hook. Fish on! Slow and steady. Felt heavy. It dumped 150 yards of braid on the first run. I told myself years ago I wouldn't put out anything smaller than a 12/0 and now I remembered why. I got it near the sandbar 25 minutes later but then it got a second wind and dumped another 100 yards. Ahhh! It went like this for a while.. I would get it back to the bar and it would take off unfazed. Twenty minutes later, with the help of a wave, it beached itself. I acted faster than usual as things take longer when there's only one pair of hands. I removed the hook and used my tagging stick to aid in the measuring process. Most of the fish was in the water so I used the cooler as a base to take a few self timer shots. A feisty 9'5" female lemon, my largest to date and more than likely the lemon that was cruising the gut earlier...
I spent the next half hour rigging and redeploying the two rods. I got back into dry clothes and continued watching the movie with a nice sub for dinner. The west wind never let up and forced the tide to come up even higher. No runs for the remainder of the movie. It was getting late so I started packing up when the 12/0 went off. This fish felt heavy from the start.. it did not pull a ton of drag but was still a 20+ minute fight. When I saw it near the sandbar under the moonlight I thought I had another tiger until the second dorsal broke the surface. It was a lot harder to beach this one with the tide heading out but I managed after a few attempts at the tail. This guy measured exactly 9' and closed the best solo night I've had..
