"Look,
do you see them? "They're right
there; three of them circling your bait," Snooky Bear growled
in anticipation of the strike, "just hold your rod steady and
when they start swimming off with it, give it a soft hook set and start
reeling." That should be easy I thought, anticipation was
at its peak, Captain Art Paiva, aka Snooky Bear, of Ruskin, Florida,
had already put my fishing buddy, Ed Chapko, on the first shark he
caught. Circling in tight, the shark kept making smaller and
smaller circles till WHAM! The shark picked up the bait and
started swimming off with it; carefully following directions I reeled
in fast tightening the line and set the hook. BAM! Within seconds,
and I do mean seconds, 40 yards of my fishing line had burned off my
reel and through my rod guides. Wow! It was an unbelievable
surge of power and shear strength. I had my first shark ever
on, then the line went limp; crap, I figured I had lost it, my line
had broke, or the shark had sliced right through the leader. So,
I slowly began reeling in the slack line. "Reel, reel,
that shark is still on," Captain Paiva shouted, "look at
your line, its way over there." Sure enough, my line had
gone 180 degrees and was now on the other side of the boat. I
started reeling in as fast as I could, but the shark was swimming faster
past me. Finally, I caught up with it, only to have this powerful
Bonnethead shark make four more powerful surges before surrendering.
After taking a couple photos, the Bonnethead shark was released back
into the shallow water where it was caught.
This
was shark fishing to the extreme. We were in shallow water,
maybe three or four feet deep and sight fishing. Captain Paiva
would chum for the sharks then tell us where to cast our fresh bait
to. Most of the time, you would see the sharks circling the
bait till they engulfed it. We were catching Bonnethead sharks today,
but Captain Paiva had been catching black tip sharks, big ones, in
the same area. I had caught a "full grown one" as
Captain Paiva referred to the five foot Bonnethead shark I was holding.
The Bonnethead shark is part of the hammerhead shark family.
I
was impressed. This shark could burn off 40 yards of line
out then turn on a dime the other direction in a blink-of-an-eye. They
had incredible strength for their size and on inshore light tackle
a formidable challenge. It was just hard to believe that we were
sight fishing for these sharks, but Captain Paiva knew right where
to go and how to catch them. One area that he fishes a great
deal of the time in the winter is power plants. In Florida's
Tampa Bay there are a number of power plants anglers can fish. Power
plant warm water discharge offer sharks tepid water to live in; in
addition to these warmer waters attracting hard-shell prey such as
crustaceans and mollusks and soft forage like small baitfish. Today,
we were fishing in the Apollo Beach area.
By the end of the
trip, we had caught and released 14 Bonnethead sharks along with
some other saltwater fish that ate our baits. The technique we were
using to catch them was free-lining a live bait with a small pinch-on
weight. When fishing this way, Captain Paiva uses high
quality Team Daiwa Tierra 3500 reels with Team Daiwa Inshore Coastal
7-6 foot spinning rod. As for line, he prefers 30-pound Power
Pro braid line with a 20-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon leader. Sight
fishing for sharks in shallow water is incredible, but fighting it
on light inshore tackle makes it a challenge and thrilling. Once
you catch one this way; you will be hooked.
For
more information for fishing with Captain Paiva aka Snooky Bear go
to his website at www.snookybearcharters.com or
call (813) 601-2772. Captain Paiva is a fulltime insured and
licensed guide who specializes in all species of saltwater fish including
redfish, cobia, sea trout, and especially snook. Captain Paiva
docks his boat at The Village Marina at Little Harbor (www.StayLittleHarbor.com)
next to The Resort and Club at Little Harbor in Ruskin, Florida.
Brad
Wiegmann is a full time fishing guide on Beaver lake and
Lake SWEPCO in Northwest Arkansas. Brad guides for Largemouth,
Spotted, Smallmouth, Stripers and White Bass. He is also a free-lance
writer who's weekly column "Speaking of Fishing" appears
weekly in several local newspapers. You may also see him doing
seminars, working outdoor shows or featured in outdoor magazines such
as BASSMASTER Magazine, Outdoor life and Arkansas Sportsman. He
also fishes the FLW Tour, Stren and local open tournaments. He
is currently on the Pro staff, promotional staff and guide programs
of numerous tackle manufactures, lure companies, and fishing related
companies. You can contact him at (479) 756-5279, at bwiegmann@cox.net or
visit his website at www.bradwiegmann.com for
more information.
