Sharks In The Surf

Friday afternoon was a great day for a scouting trip, so when I finished working on the interior of our newly erected shed, I packed up a few rods and headed to the beach to see what happening.

I had been receiving mixed reports of bull whiting, pompano, and shark being caught at Playalinda Beach so that was my first stop, via Bio Lab road.

Bio Lab road was relatively void of bank fishermen but there was a lot of scenic traffic.

The temperature was in the 80s and there was a mild breeze blowing across the Mosquito Lagoon.  

The water in the shallows was dirty but looked clear at the dropoffs, but in the southernmost portion of the lagoon, brown algae was abundant.

The warm air temperatures had a plethora of alligators sunning along the banks in many areas.   I counted a baker's dozen as I drove along Bio Lab road to the beach and stopped to take a few pics.

As Bio Lab turned into two lanes, I decided to pull into an area where I caught some snook earlier in the month.

The water on the lagoon side of the culverts was dirty, but the tanin stained water on the right side of the unimproved road was clear.

This time of the year the baitfish are not yet in the lagoon system and crustaceans are the forage of choice for sea trout, drum, and snook, so I pulled out a D.O.A. Shrimp smeared with some Pro-Cure gel and started working it slowly along several areas on both sides of the culvert.

After a dozen or so casts without a single hit, I moved across the barrier to fish that area.  

My second cast to the mangrove roots produced a nice hit but no hookup and as I reeled in the shrimp bait I spied a 10 foot plus gator on the bank that I missed as I walked up to the area.

I took his pic and decided to head back to the car and hit the beach.

As I drove down the road to the beach, the amount of vehicle traffic was impressive for a Friday afternoon. 

The first parking lot was closed due to repairs, but from lot #2 to #10, every lot had parked cars.

It was almost 5:00 pm when I stopped at lot #8 to talk to an angler that was loading his gear up to leave.   

He didn't do too well with pompano but he cleaned up on some nice size whiting.  He was fishing along the closer troughs using sand fleas and small pieces of shrimp for bait.

I noticed he was using a short rod which is probably why he didn't score any pompano.  They are running out past the last sand bars and require long casts.

At Lot #9 another angler in a balloon tire equipped beach cart was loading up to leave.  He and his wife said they caught a bunch of bull whiting on shrimp and sand fleas but no pompano.

Another fisherman who was just leaving as I pulled in said the only thing he caught was a large Lemon Shark he estimated to weigh in at about 80 pounds.

He said the fish had him running up and down the beach screaming drag quite a while before he could finally land it.

I took some pics of the calm seas before moving up to lot #9 where only one fisherman said he caught a couple of  keeper pompano.

It was around 5:30 pm when I stopped to take a shot of the Space X pad before heading out of the area to get something for dinner.

Didn't too much good fishing this afternoon, but it really wasn't a fishing trip.

Might get out tomorrow,

Tight Lines.