[SanibelFisher]

Headed out for a relaxing day of flounder fishing. The rough seas Saturday morning brought one of the people on my boat back to shore thru Corsons Inlet. There were many Bunker schools just past the breakers in the inlet on our way back out. While we were filling the Live well someone on a Jet ski asked us to help with a swamped Zodiac in the breakers. We were able to pull it out of the surf. It took all three of us (Barners Middletown, Esox1 and myself) to flip the 12Ft craft back over. While we were towing it back thru the inlet the Marine police arrived and followed us back in.

I have no idea what happened to cause the Zodiac to become swamped in the inlet but I understand the only person on the boat was rescued by the PWC's that were in the surf. The marine police took the boat once I had it safely inside the inlet. You really need to be careful in that inlet.

Some quick pic's snapped by Esox1.

Afte trying to catch some flatties from the OC Reef to TI Inlet we decided to liveline some of those bunker. The next few hours were brown after brown with one Hammerhead thrown into the mix. We were only 3 miles from shore when we caught all of the sharks. Some of the browns were BIG. The Hammerhead was around 4 1/2 FT. All fish were released unharmed.

Also saw large pods of Rays swimming by the boat, pretty cool.

 

[SanibelFisher]

Larger Shots,

 

[rockdoc]

Nice pics...and congrats on the nice sharks...I was out in the same general area that morning, targeting fluke.....Saw the schools of bunker....Caught one brown shark on a bucktail---this was my first brown.....Question---how do you fish for browns and manage to release them unharmed? Circle hooks? Do you cut the line to release? What pound test leader and size hook do you use? I managed to get my brown to the side of the boat where he bit through the line....Couldn't imagine trying to unhook one of these guys-----thanks--Mike

 

[OVER THE RAIL]

Good work, Sanibel. Nice to know guys like you are out there.

 

[cam]

Nice sharks.

 

[Esox1]

Come on Sanibel, the hammerhead was bigger than 4 1/2 foot.

 

[NIGHTSTRIKES]

Great Shots and Fishing Report SanibelFisher,
Thanks,,,

 

[Mddletown]

Nice Pics guys. Thanks for taking me out. Esox that hammerhead had to have been at least 9-10 feet haha.

Who was the guy in the Zodiak????

 

[SanibelFisher]

rockdoc, We cut the hook when possible but the big ones get the leader/wire cut just above the hook. As for the leader, we first tried 100lb mono but not one fish made it to the boat without being bitten off. We then switched to wire with about a 100% success rate - no bite off's. I honesty forget the hook size. There was a time when my crazy brother (Esox) would lift shark into the boat and wrestle him for the hook back. It is less stressfull for the fish and safer for the fisherman to cut the hook/line and let the remainder come out on it's own.


Esox, Yes the Hammerhead was probably just shy of 6ft but who's braggin. Some of the Browns were bigger.

 

[Reel-ality]

Nice pictures, and a job well done on bringing the zodiac in.