Jekyl Report 7/21-7/23 and Interesting Fellow

[gasurffish]

First off the interesting guy on the South end at St Andrews there was a guy with a coaster wagon with about 6 rods mounted with Large open reels. They had taken the bait out into the channel via a canoe and were definately targeting large shark . He said had one break off but that was all so far. I mentioned Interesting because off the large shark tooth necklace etc. Tourists would get a kick out of his local character. Fished main beach early and late until 11.00 PM and north and south ends lots of sharks in the 3' range and, cats, rays, croaker. Wind was out of east and surf on the inlets up

[Railroader]

If he was a kinda thick built, Seminole Indian looking feller with glasses, That'd have to be Chet...And he is one hell of an interesting feller. Holds the state record for sandbar shark, caught right there at the South End. If he was out there, it's TIME TO GO CATCH A BIG SHARK.

[jdarylh1]

Yep, I saw him also. He was with a bunch of other people. They went about 1/4 mile down the beach, away from where the shrimp seiners were working. Had short stubby rods and gigantic reels. Was using half a big eel for bait and his leader was plastic coated cable, as thick as a pencil.

Quite a character. Pretty nice though......he told me to get my rod and come on down and fish with him. I had to get back to the wife though..she was back with the shrimpers.

He said he'd caught a 7' and a few smaller ones the day before. Then he told me about his record 14' one.

What do you think he does with the sharks after he gets them in?

[Railroader]

Chet's pretty much a tag and release guy now, as are most of the locals that live close by. There's kind of a club that keep all kinds of records on measurements, toxicity, and species.

They take a tissue sample with a hole puncher looking thing in specific places for different breeds, and attatch a tag, and the shark is released. It is not uncommon for them to catch the same shark numerous times thru the years.

Ol' Chet is a shark hunter at heart, though, and still keeps one from time to time.

[bigphil]

To catch them that big you have to have the big reels, but you cant cast them so you have to have something to haul bait out with. I talked to some fellows down there one day that were using a Jon boat. They had caught a 250# a couple days prior.

I've recently acquired a 14' jon boat, but I have yet to test the motor out yet.