Hunting & Fishing Enthusiast By Roger Wiltz

Rog’s Rod & Nimrod by Roger Wiltz (for the 8/17/22 column) Gulf Shores Fishing On Tuesday afternoon, July 26th, Sam, Gaby, LuAnn, and I climbed aboard our 22 foot fishing charter boat powered by a Suzuki 200 HP four-stroke outboard engine. We scheduled a half-day – 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. outing. A canopy over the center console offered some shelter from the sun. Our guide/captain Rich, a recent college grad, was amiable and hard-working. I fished from a bench in front of the console, Gabby from the ample deck bow, and Sam from the stern. LuAnn volunteered to be our photographer.

From the boat ramp we headed to the nearest off-shore oil rig where we anchored on the north side of the rig and fished live shrimp from light tackle open-faced spinning rods. It was very frustrating for me as I was unable to set the hook on my numerous strikes. Rich was kept busy baiting my hook. I eventually managed to land a lady fish whose diagonal steaks would later serve as shark bait. Lady fish are a popular target – not as table fare but for their fight and fondness for artificial lures. I believe that Sam and Gab faced similar frustration.

I continued for a while with the live shrimp fishing while behind me Rich and Sam were rigging a heavier outfit with a much larger hook for shark. Baited with a hunk of lady fish and cast out the stern, a strike was almost immediate. The excitement caught my attention as Sam battled the shark that was eventually heaved on board by Rich. Sam, who is quite knowledgeable about gulf fish, named the fish an Atlantic long-nosed shark – not to be confused with the sawshark variety. The sharks we caught were adult sharks three to four feet in length. On the previous day, Rich landed a seven foot shark for his clients.

The shark action continued as Gaby now manned the shark rig. Her strike was almost immediate, and as a very experienced angler, she handled the fish with skill as Sam advised her to pump the fish on her upward stroke while reeling in line on the down stroke. I was almost overcome with excitement as I had never encountered a shark before, and I moved to the stern and asked to be next up. Like the previous strikes, it was immediate. Minutes later I was posing for LuAnn with my first shark. I then suggested to her that she man the shark rig which she readily accepted. She too was successful.

Sam wanted another shark and resumed the shark rig action. Minutes later he boated his second shark. That was five sharks within a half hour, most of it fighting time! According to GOOGLE, these sharks were excellent table fare although all were returned to the gulf waters. An excellent chef once told me that the scallops I order from a seafood menu are actually shark.

As Sam battled his second shark, I managed to land a Spanish mackerel. Although he can reach a yard in length and 14 pounds, mine was smaller. As the Spanish mackerel with his sharp teeth is excellent on the table, Rich put him in the ice chest. Now there would be a change in plans. We headed in a southeasterly direction for some flats where we would fish live shrimp under a bobber for red fish and jack crevalle.

Sam’s bobber rig had no sooner hit the water when his bobber went under. He was onto an incredibly strong fish that relentlessly peeled line from his reel. Sam headed for the bow deck where he stood and played his fish. If Rich hadn’t immediately followed Sam’s fish with the boat, it would have been gone with all of Sam’s line. Rich guessed jack crevalle and mentioned that his last jack fought for an hour and a half. Sam was hoping jack as he deftly raced around the perimeter of the boat, at times burying his rod up to the handle in order to keep the line from fraying on the hull. Repeatedly the fish took out most of the line, only to be regained by Sam. This went on for over an hour until Sam eventually played the fish almost straight down. After an hour and fifteen minutes, we at times caught sight of the bobber. Shortly thereafter the rod broke in two. Now Sam played the fish with the butt end of the rod. At an hour and a half Rich expertly gaffed the jack crevalle and slung it aboard. We had gone beyond our four hours of time.

See you next week.