Sharks were the catch for the Hooked on Fishing film crew this week. We fished with Capt. Dave Blanchard and Capt. Daniel Long for sharks at night near Honeymoon Island. A 15 pound kingfish and a 10 pound sting ray were used for our big baits on 80 pound class rods and chunks of Spanish mackerel for our smaller baits on 30 pound class spinning rods.

Blanchard and Long were continuously cutting up mullet and mackerel into chunks for chum and we also had bag of fresh ground menhaden hanging over the side. With that much chum in the water it did not take long for the sharks to find us.

The first sharks to arrive as the sun was setting were small sharp nose and black tip sharks in the 2 to 3 foot range. They bit the smaller chunk baits.

After getting well warmed up catching the smaller ones the big boys showed up for dinner on our kingfish. After a 30 minute battle in the dark a 250 pound big black tip shark had his picture taken and was let go. Following the big black tip was a 200 pound sand shark.

Capt Billy Miller reports tarpon are plentiful and hungry. I fished with Miller one morning this week and we hooked four tarpon and boated two using crabs and green backs for bait along St. Pete Beach. Miller is also catching limits of big trout and pompano on the inside grass flats and channel edges.

Acres of glass minnows are off Davis Islands near downtown Tampa. Feeding on the small fry bait are Spanish mackerel, speckled and silver trout, ladyfish, jacks, catfish and tarpon.

Charlie Reynolds, Don Mastry and Laurence Hall had a great day offshore in 85 feet of water limiting on red grouper to 20 pounds and big mangrove snapper in the 6-8 pound range.