A Power Hour Near Blitz of Sharks

From a perspective of fishing, the power hour bite that Doug and I had on Tuesday night was pretty cool.  But for someone who likes to swim a few laps in the morning, it may not be well to know that you can stand on shore and cast a light bait into a headwind and have something run line down to the backing.  With an adequate supply of bait and a near perfect method for keeping them alive, we cast our sprite eels and I breathed a sigh of relief from all the preparation work.  I contemplated how amazing it is living in New Jersey, to be able to do what we are doing, a state of contrasts from the hustle and bustle along the main road in the beach towns.

Of course too much quiet can be just as lame as overstimulation.  With nothing to show for the first hour, I decided to cast an eel out there and bring it back in real slow, just because I thought that would somehow break the monotony.  And did it break!  I cast and reeled in as slow as possible, sloooooowww and even sloooooowwweerrr then . . . TUG TUG.  Doug!  They're here!  It tugged again, but let go.  I saw a dark wake on the calm surface where my eel was.  Veritable lure fishing for sharks!  The power hour had begun.

My Impression of what may be going on down there

Doug did the same method and got hit within a minute, also without a connection.  He went back to dead sticking, and well before bait fishing coma started his rod was going down to the floor.  Fish on!  Zzzzzz Zzzzzzz ZZzzzzz.  Can you stop it?  No!  It's taking all my line!  There was a huge splash on the surface a ways out.  Zzzzzzz Zzzzzzzzzz.  I looked at the silhouette of Doug's rig and saw an anorexic reel.  I'm at the backing!  This thing is huge!  Another mega splash broke the stillness.  He gained a little, and it ran again.  HARD.  And then . . . bink . . . gone.  You lost it?  Yeah.  That sigh is something you have to experience, it's a rite of passage to anyone who fishes.  'The big one that got away' is the cliche.  He retrieved his line and we expected to see a mangled or missing rig, but it looked fresh from the package, with no eel.  What?  I guess it was never really hooked . . .

There was no time to sulk.  I baited up and threw out as quickly as possible.  It took only several minutes for my rod tip to bounce.  I picked it up out of the spike and felt the tugging.  Wait for it . . . wait for it . . . Now!  I set up.  Zzzzip.  Zzzzip.  Bink.  Damn, lost it, broken mono.  No time to feel sorry, I re-rigged and baited as fast as possible.  If you've ever been in a hot night bite for stripers, the pace felt exactly the same, urgent but with sharks!  I stood at the ready.  A huge loud splash broke the surface around where the baits were.  Holy ****.  Did that hit you?  No.  Me neither.  Sharks busting the surface, crazy!  It only took a minute before I was slammed again.

My fish was of the moderate respectable size.  All we can do is wonder about Doug's fish.

It took about 10 minutes and a 150ft walk to subdue my fish.  Doug handled the leadering, made easier with using mono as a mainline by the way, and yet another reason why I believe mono is better for this type of fishing.  I handed him my rod and finished pulling up the shark.  Dehooking was easy with the hook in the corner of the mouth.  The standard photographs were taken and the shark was released.  Phheww.  We walked back to camp and cast out with much anticipation, but that was the bite.  9:50pm to 10:50pm.  1 for 5 contacts.  3 for 3 nights.  With no more hits by 11:20pm, 20 minutes past the work night curfew, we decided to pack it in with just enough time to squeeze through the door for ice cream.

This was only five minutes into night two- while it was still light out- but the sharks were shy.

Well we had to go back the next night.  We set up just as the sun was dipping below the horizon.  It didn't take long for my rod to jiggle.  Oh my god.  It's not even dark yet!  I picked it up and felt two big tugs, which prompted a swing and a miss.  I was left with a decapitated and chomped eel!  It was a great start, but it was slow for the next hour.  Then my rod jiggled again.  I handled it and felt something near my bait.  It started to swim away with it.  Tug tug.  Wait wait.  I set up, missing again.  Shy sharks tonight.  With no more hits and exhausted from the double night marathon, we left early.  Contact counts even if it doesn't produce, and you learn just by being out there, so it was okay there was no big hook up.

With southerly winds and swell forecast for this weekend, along with the more definite chance of the quarter moon phase, the rods will stay idle until next week.  Over the next three weeks there are few beaches down south I want to try, and so I will.  Wouldn't it be great to think of all these theories and be able to test them anytime and any way you wanted to?  You have to fight for your right to party.