"Shark Bait"

Story of the Shark photo

Traveling on US 1 down to the Lower Keys.

We packed up the boat and left Islamorada about 7:00am.
Dad knew fishing in the Lower Keys would be good.
He likes it in the Spring for Tarpon,Permit and Shark fishing.

Got down to Little Torch Key and put the boat in the water.
The weather was a little cool still. You can see I have on my fleece.
Bringing a couple of fly rods along for John Hunter(my brother)and Dad
was a good idea.
We saw 2 Tarpon right away. They were moving pretty fast so we didn't bother
with them.
Then the fun started happening.
A ton of Permit. JH through a fly out in front of them. He made a couple of good casts,
but nobody was biting.
I through out a crab on a spinning rod, they didn't want that either.
When Dad got a crab right in front of the Permit and they wouldn't eat
it, we figured they must be too picky or not hungry. Permit are touchy
fish to feed sometimes.

I will be telling you a ton of great fishing stories of people catching Permit.
Some world record Permit and just some good ole lucky Permit stories.
Now to the Shark story.
We moved from that spot and found a bunch of sharks all together. We
all love the thrill of catching sharks.
I through out a bait of lady fish about 15 feet from the boat.Bumped it 3 times
and bam! He was on it. Gave him a good yank and the battle was on. We danced (that means I fought to get the Shark to the boat)for about 15 minutes.
Dad got him up on the bow quickly and got that great picture.
Put him right back out into the water to go back and play with his shark friends.
Or whatever Sharks do.
We caught about 10 more and then called it quits for the day. My arms were tired.
We headed back to Islamorada and hung out with our friend Jim Hole from Canada.
He's an Outfitter there. Great guy. Loves fishing in the Keys too.
Check out his website. www.classic-outfitters.com
Hope you enjoyed this one as much as I did.
Leave me a comment.
Keep it reel!
Luke

  

Fishing in the Florida Keys


Hi,
My name is Luke Spear. My dad has been a fishing guide in the Florida Keys for 30 Years.
I have heard all kinds of incredible fishing stories all my life.
People from all over the world have come to fish in the Keys because it is such an awesome place.

Fishing for tarpon, bonefish, permit, snook, snapper, grouper and all kinds of other fish is what the stories have been about. Some of them tell of going out in the back country and chasing bonefish all over the flats for a day and landing that one huge fish.

Oh, sometimes I've heard about being in the middle of a school of tarpon( that means a whole bunch together) that are so hungry they will go after any fly you throw in front of them.
You get them to eat it, then they jump up out of the water and you hang on for dear life til you reel them to the boat.
I caught a world record tarpon in the Pee Wee division of the IGFA when I was about 7 or 8.
Had to work really hard to get that one to the boat.
I'll post a picture and tell you the whole story of that one later.

My brother, John Hunter Spear was the youngest boy to catch an IGFA Inshore Grand Slam.
A Grand Slam is a tarpon, bonefish, and permit all in one day.
He was 7 when he did it. You can see and hear that one later too.

I will put some pictures up and maybe even some video as I get the stories together.

Rick Ruoff, Steve Huff, Dustin Huff, Diego Rouylle, Timmy Klien and Craig Brewer are some of the guides I have heard stories from.

I hope you will come back often and enjoy all the stories I'll be posting here.

Keep it reel.
Luke