We have video of every fish we hooked into that will be posted as soon as it is edited.

The next morning, we got rained out, and right as we finished packing it in, the sky started to clear.  We headed off the sand had some breakfast and met up with Justin Stewart to discuss the game plan. Ended up going back to the spot and setting up.

Yaking the baits

Kayaked out the rods and let them sit. The rough surf limited the amount of rods but right after i got done kayaking, still in wet clothes, i ran over to my 14/0 because it started bouncing. This time i stuck the hook good and after a nice fight we beached this 7′4″ Sand Tiger. We worked great together getting the fish back into the water, it felt like we had been fishing together a long time.
Justin Stewart, Myself, NCSHARKER


Me and my dad

Release

NCSHARKER’s 12/0 starts screaming and he sets up but drops the fish soon after. It was a good one but hey that just shows how thick the fish were. Shortly after, NCSHARKER’s 6/0 starts rolling hard. He sets up and we know right away this was going to be a very big fish. Massive head shakes and strong runs had us walking down the beach after the fish. The fish refused to come over the bar, NCSHARKER played it just right and didnt force it. The water was low and the bar was shallow but the fish ended up coming into the first gut and we saw the massive Sand Tiger. It took two of us just to drag her a little out of the water. The girth on this fish was huge and the jaws were incredible. We quickly got her back in the water. She measured 9ft on the mark. What a beautiful fish.

We rebaited some rods and sent them back out through the huge surf. Not long after, Justin’s 9/0 starts bouncing and he sets up on a fish. Seconds later, my 14/0 starts going off and my dad starts fighting a nice fish. So now we have a double header within 20 minutes of the baits being dropped. If it wasnt for the rough conditions, we could have bailed these fish all day. Justin gets his fish in to the wash first and my dad follows soon after. We leader both fish and put them on the beach. My dads fish measured at 7′8″ but was hulking compared to the fish i had landed. It just shows how much 4 inches can do to a healthy fish. The double was awesome to say the least.

My dad and Justin with their double header fish.

The sharks had the feed bag on big time but It started getting a little dark and the wind was only picking up. Gusts were going at 35mph and conditions became unfishable. We called it and decided to get a good nights sleep so we could start early the next day. I’m glad we fought through the tough conditions as we were rewarded with 4 nice fish with each of us getting one. You really really cant beat that. Not to mention all the great conversation we had all day. I couldnt have been happier but we did have high hopes for sunday morning as the wind was going to die down but a cold front was coming through hard at night.

We woke up the next day with temps in the 40s with the high for the day supposed to be in the mid to high 50s. We got out to the beach early and NCSHARKER took out 3 rods in the cold temps. It was intense. Soon after, Justin shows up and we continue setting up. We try and fish for some bait my dad and i both score on some fresh bait. There was a ton of bait forming a 100yard wide band of bait stretching down the beach. the pelicans were having a ball dive bombing left and right. We all rigged up more rods and formed a spread of 2 6/0s, 2 9/0s, 2 12/0s, and my 14/0.

The surf was calm….

We sit around patiently waiting for something to happen. My dad and i just had a great time hanging out with you guys and then it happened. Justin’s 12 bounces, slacks and then starts rolling hard. He gives the fish line and sets up hard on the fish, and then hits it again. The second time around he got spun around and the fight was really on. The fish came to the surface and it was a MONSTER. Justin and I saw it right past the bar! The fish went under and started tugging hard. Justins rod was under a ton of pressure and then the hook pulled. Heart break…he need to take a seat after that one. Seeing his reaction and how hard he took it just shows how passionate he really is about sharking. That goes for both of those guys, they are pretty hard core fisherman that really love what they are doing.

About 10 minutes after Justin was hooked up, my 14/0 bounces and slacks then comes tight and rolls a little. I hop on the rod and video starts rolling. The fish plays with the bait and so i just let it do its thing. I put the rod back in the holder and and take a seat, a minute or so later, the drag starts going off and the fish has made up its mind, i pick up the rod let the fish eat the bait and set up good. I feel good weight on the other end and try my best to stay tight. I work the fish in with a tight drag until it gets closer to the the bar and then it takes off a few times. Im all harnessed up and im leaning into the fish hard. Finally it gets over the bar and in between waves, i see a fin, but its different than the ones we had been seeing. I knew right away it wasnt a sand tiger. The anticipation builds as the fish gets in closer. With Justin and Jason on the leader, they work the fish in from the wash. Jason screams DUSKY! Its a big DUSKY! Sure enough, we put this nice shark on the beach measured just over 7 ft. It was incredibly thick and the girth measurement was close to 4ft! Snap some pictures and with adrenaline pumping i walk the fish out in my clothes and boots for a clean release!

Out of all the sharks, i didnt think we were going to pull out a Dusky. We were all really excited. None of us had ever seen one in person until then…it was great to share that experience. After that we all had a serious adrenaline rush and the cold temps didnt seem to bother us and in no time we were kayaking out our rigs.

The rods sat quiet, until Jason’s 12/0 started clicking a few feet at a time. It went on and off for about 20 minutes. The fish unfortunately didnt commit. We had high hopes based on the bite.

As we were packing up, we hear a reel scream. We look around and we cant tell but i thought that it sounded like my 9/0. We wait another second and my 9/0 starts going off. I pick up the rod let the fish take it and set up and i get owned. The fish takes off and my drag was a touch too loose and the spool burns my thumb. I feel it rubbing me on the bar and then the line goes dead. I thought i lost it but i kept cranking anyway and i actually caught up the the fish. After a stop go fight i work the fish onto and over the bar and once it goes in the gut we realize its a BIG ray. Check it out!

After this we called it a trip. This was an incredible weekend of fishing and all of us had a great time. With personal bests going to NCSHARKER and my dad. I cannot thank NCSHARKER, NCSHARKBABE, and Justin Stewart for being so nice and helping us have a great time.

Keep in mind, there is incredible action video of every fish…it should be up soon.

-Matzy

so after work i desided i was going to give it another shot i mean why not the fishing has been hot. so my boss and his wife want to go with me and i am not the guy that wont take someone fishing so heck yea lets go. unfortunetly justin stewart couldent come on this trip but hey i wish you were there buddy. so i yakked out 2 baits on the 6/0s. and it was dead all night. so about 2:00 we deside to call it a night and start packing up. and as me and WES (my boss) were putting the yakk on the truck zzzz…………………..zzzzz………………………zzzzzz realy slow so i let the fish take it and then wam the hooks were set. it felt like a good fish but i will say i thought it was a sandy. but it just ran alot harder. well KATHY (bosses wife) had never caught a shark befor so i let here reel it in and helped her with the rod and line stuff. so the fish gets in to the wash and i grab the leader and then i see a tail i havent seen before. at first i thought it mite be a blacktip but the fight was so differant. and thenit roled and i freaked it was my first tiger shark well our first tiger shark. she was so perty . she wasent big but hey it was a tiger. we realeased the fish , finished packin up and went home. guys this week is one for the books for us here in NC i think we should all go out and play the lotery. jason

Caught this citation fish on a Penn 525 mag with 17 suffix tritanium on an any fish any where 6 and bait rod.

Ok you all have waited long enough . Ok so Thursday night is when Justin and I caught my first big sand tiger. Well after that I just needed more .so Friday morning I went to the tackle shop really early to get another top shot for my 6/0 that had been shredded the night before. Well these 2 guys asked me what I was fishing for with the big reels . So I told them aaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllll about the land based shark fishing thing. As soon as I was don’t they both said “im in” and we made plans to meet them on the sand and they could get to see all this first hand. So that night Justin and I meet up with them and get on the sand at about 7:00 pm. We went back to the same spot that I had caught the big sand tiger the night before and set up and yakked out 3 baits. Well it was stupid quiet for about 4 hours not a click just us talking to the new guys about what this sport is all about. What happened next Justin and I just couldn’t grasp. Out of nowhere zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Justin’s rod goes ape $&^&^$% so he grabs it sets the hooks and it is on. he screams get the belt so I get the release bag and get the belt on him and he says “this is a monster fish man” just than all I here is another zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz I look back and theres my rod and she’s going off. So I pick up ,set ,and now Justin and I are in to are first STUD DOUBLE HOOK UP!!!!!!! Now as all this is going on keep in mind that we have other people on the beach with us that for 1 most likely thought I we where liars or crazy, and #2 didn’t have a clue as to what the hell was going on or what to do. So we are trying the best we can to guide them on stuff like the photos and what’s in the release bag and how to use it. All this while Justin and I are both hooked in to the biggest fish of are lives. So we start telling the guys that we met about how to grab this fish when it gets in the surf and there both looking at us like YEA RIGHT you want me to go where and do what with its tail. Well they didn’t have much time to complain because Justin’s fish was in the wash . I didn’t expect them to do it but they did great not a peep about it just ran in there grabbed it and dragged it on the sand like they had done it 100 times . So now its time for my fish and she’s in the wash to and again those guys were in and out with the tailing. So with both fish on the beach what Justin and I were looking at was amazing to say the least. 2 studs both bigger than the one I had the night before

. Well after some dental work and photos we got them back in ASAP and both fish lived to fight another day.

this was by far the coolest thing I have ever seen . Well that’s it I wanted to also thank the guys that helped us that night they did far better then I ever thought they would, and also to Justin for being a great friend and fishing buddy, it was super cool to catch these fish side by side with ya budd.

OK now as if this report wasent enuff for you I went back out last night with my girlfriend , my boss and his wife and yes i have another report for yall that you wont beleve. i will have that up in about an hour.

NCSHARKER & JUSTIN STEWART

well we got to the beach at about 8:00 i got the rigs baited and yakked out just past the bar wich was only about 75 yards out. well what happond next mad history for me about an hour later click click click just realy slow and then the line went slack so i just reeled like hell and then there she was so i ran up the beach and set the hooks . as soon as i set up on her i knew this was the fish of my life just stupid heavy and the head shakes, oooooooo god the head shakes. well i played the fish for about 10 minuts and then bump gone .  The hooks pulled and i was pissed. so i just thought GREAT why wouldent the hooks pull i mean hell thats how i knew it wasent a blacktip because if it was i would have caught it.  Anyway i still had another bait out so I desided to just let it sit. so me and justin were just drinking some “sodas”  . and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz she just went. so hooks set and it was on and this fish felt even bigger than the first one. well this fish gave me hell up and down the beach. she ran like hell at me and away from me by far the best fight i have ever had yet. well about a half hour later she was on the sand and i had my first NON BLACK TIP. YIIIIIIIIIIIPPPPPPPPYYYYY. it was a nice sand tiger i mean this thing was fat as hell. we didnt get a good lenth on her because by the time she came in we were like 400 yards down the beach. but you guys can see from the pics she wasent a small fish by any means. i would say like around 7 or 8 but still my biggest landed fish.

so here she is

mabey not the biggest for some but i am so proud of this fish for the first time i fell like i am getting somewere.

ok but thats not it heres the iceing on the cake. so after we caught the fish and got her back in and swimin i yakked out 2 more baits. when i got back justin was on the phone with DEAVER. so he handed the phone to me and we were talking about the fish and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz sorry deaver got to go fish on. set the hooks and ooooooooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmmy god this fish was HUGE!!!!!!!!!. It was the first time i have ever hooked something i just couldent do anything with. it just went as hard as i tryed it wouldent go anywere i wanted it to it just waned to go off shore. now i had just beached a 7+ fish not a half hour befor and this thing was much much bigger. well sorry to say the hooks pulled again. i will never fish a mustad duratin hokk again but hay i wasent mad at all i got what i had come for.

thanx to every one on the site for there info and for being good friends. you all made this fish posable for me. thanx

jason

After these were set, we went to my 9/0 to decide about rigging for it. We decided to put one of their wind on leaders on it. We started to tie the bimini twist to form the loop to connect the windon, and the 6 wide starts clicking. We ran to the rod, and Jason picked up to feel if it was still on. I saw him run back a little to seat the hook a little better, and handed the rod off to me! I start cranking, and cannot really tell if it is on or not. Jason goes to the surf to wait for the leader. He kept asking me if it is on , and I keep telling him I don’t know. After a minute or two of cranking, I feel a fish! He must have been hanging out until I got him in close. I gave Jason the thumbs up and keep on cranking. Jason soon saw it and grabbed the leader and dragged it onto the beach. I am waiting for pics of me fighting the fish and poses with it to be emailed to me. Another angler (the same guy whose Granddaughter Jason helped catch the big blacktip) was driving by while I was winding it in, and offered to snap photos for us (He used his camera, I forgot to give him mine). It was a perfect corner jaw hookset, and rather than trying to yank out the big 20/0 circle, we used boltcutters on the barb and slid the hook out. After I cut the hook and got the poses, I started snapping pics of Jason releasing the fish. Healthy blacktip on the 4′ range. We were so set on getting a clean release, we didn’t sex it, measure it, or tag it.

It didn’t want to leave the shallow water, so Jason decided to take it out a little farther.

This is the mullet the little guy hit

Jason ran another bait on the 6 wide and we went back to my 9/0. Put the windon and trace on, and put the scraps of stingray from his 12/0 bait on the 20/0 circle. It was 3 pieces about 10 or 12 inches long and 4 or 5 inches wide. He ran it out about 200-250 yards. In the last few minutes before dark, the 9/0 starts clicking! Justin Stewart is there by this time. Jason goes to the rod and picks it up. He feels the fish pulling him toward the water and hands it off to me. When I start to feel the heavy weight pulling down on the rod, I take a couple of quick steps back and everything breaks loose. Drag starts screaming, I am having a hard time keeping the rod up and I am PUMPED. He stops for a second and I feel head shakes. Every time his head moves, the rod is bobbing in my hands. I start cranking trying to do something, and he takes off again under heavy drag. It was not far into the run and it slacks up. Noooo I think to myself. What did I do wrong? What failed? Is he charging the beach? I wind for all I am worth, and my worst fear is realized: HE IS GONE! We look at the business end and find the windon tailwhipped. All of you know I am new to this, but I don’t think this was your average 6′ shark. Jason seemed to agree that it was probably a pretty good fish. Oh well, maybe next time. We hung around for a while longer to see if the 12/0 would roll, but it stayed quiet. Packed up and called it a night around 9 or 10 o’clock. Jason went above and beyond what I expected. He drove everywhere, provided bait and yakked out all the baits. He worked his tail off to try and get me a fish. He succeeded. I caught a decent size blacktip , and experienced some MAJOR pullage from a shark that very well may have spooled me if not for the tailwhip. Once again, thank you Jason and Justin for all of the help and hospitality to someone you just met. I will get the action shots and poses up as soon as I receive them. Until next time……………….

Here are a few more pics from the trip.Hooked Up
This is Jason doing the Blacktip Boogie after Miss Blacktip wanted a few toes to snack on.

Boltcutters to make removal easier.

Happy Sharkers
 

NCSharker and I decided to go to Hatteras on a whim to see if we could catch the big one.

Just got on the beach, getting the bait rod together.

We got this guy at the docks where the party boats come in.
NCSharker has a way of talking to people that makes them want to give him free things.
This was one of those things.

Cut in half and awaiting rigging.

It was so fresh. We actually ate some of it. It looks gross in the picture, but it was actually really good!

Locked and loaded.

Jason had that chunk out there all day and brought in a skeleton.

We actually caught this on a king head. A tiger without stripes.
This is my biggest so far.

The bait was out around 550-600 becuase I was into my backing while the rod was in the holder.
I was watching it and all of a sudden it went slack. I tightened it up. It slacked up again.
I ran up the beach to set the hooks.

I though I had a smaller shark on. It didn’t really fight much, except for a little run when we got it to the bar.

It was hooked deep, so we didn’t measure, just cut and released asap.
Estimated 8′-8′6″, 200lbs-225lbs. Was a very FAT shark. (It took both of us to drag her back)
Swam away fine after a few photos.

The beach goers were a little scared to go back into the water after the release. We told them to give it a few minutes and they should be fine.

Finally back from IRAQ! Missed you man!

Nice day in NC. We get to the beach around 8 AM. And start rigging.

NCSHARKER takes out a huge chunk of Tuna on his 12/0. Yakked around 650 yards right. It was a nice day to yak.

NOJ is next up with a huge ray for his 12/0. Yakked around 700 yards left.

I’m up next. Smaller ray for the 12/0 yakked 450 yards straight out.

With the big rods out successfully. We put out a 6/0hlw, diawa slosh50, and a 9/0. These rods were yakked out just past the bar.

With all the rods out, it’s time for the eagle kite.

Julie having a talk with my 12. Sing baby, sing.

Release bag and cast net.

A little while later, the slosh 50 starts to roll. Noj is up.

First shark in. Time for the flag kite.

Me having a talk with my 12. Sing baby, sing.

These make dropping bait so much better.

Next up, the 6/0 screams like only a blacktip can make it. Julie is on it! Sorry for the sideways pictures.

The big rods sat untouched. When we brought them in, there were some bites taken, but nothing too major. Anyway, it was a fun day at the beach.

We had 3 baits out, rigged with mullet, yakked approx 500 yards.  The warm summer night was conducive to catching.  We had caught 2 blacktip sharks and one finetooth shark before everything got quiet.  We were sitting on the beach, in for the long haul, waiting for a reel to sing. 

A few hours later, I saw the tip of one of the rods start to bend.  I ran up to the rod, set the hook, and started fighing the fish.  The fight didn’t take too long. Well, I let everyone in my crew fight it for a little bit (Penn 9500, oceanmaster heavy, braid).  We put the fish on the sand, my girlfriend took a few pics, I took the hooks out, and released the shark.  I didn’t take the time to measure it as I wanted to release it as quickly as possible.  I’de guess around 5′6″ to 6′.  This is my first Tiger Shark.