"Summer Sharks"
By Terry Lacoss
Some 45 fishing seasons ago, Jack Burling, daughter, Sue and son, Mike bordered Captain Jimmy Gavin’s 45-foot charter fishing boat, the “Lisa Ann”. The fishing adventure departed from Mayport’s Historic Monty’s Marina for a day of shark fishing.
“We specifically targeted sharks and began our day by catching a pair of huge amberjacks while fishing offshore reefs”, Mike Burling remembers. “Once our guide, Captain Jimmy Gavin, had guided our party to a seventy and eighty-pound amberjacks, we directed our fishing to big reef sharks”.
The warm summer months off northeast Florida attracts some of the south’s best shark fishing, particularly at offshore reefs where tiger and hammerhead sharks regularly dine on fairly large game fish. Here, a weak kingfish, cobia, cuda or amberjack are kept a close eye on by large reef sharks and when the moment is right, the kill only takes a split second.
“Captain Gavin cut the large amberjacks into large, bloody chunks of meat, then barbed them on fairly large shark hooks, rigged with airplane rudder cable”, Burling said. “The baits were dropped down to the reef and immediately drew attention from a large hammerhead shark. My father was in the fighting chair and reeled in the slack fishing line to set the hook only to find that the hammerhead shark had opened his toothy mouth and let the bait go. However while reeling the barbed amberjack baits back to the “Lisa Ann’s” transom, the massive hammerhead charged the bait and our fishing boat”!
This time the ten-foot hammerhead shark took the bait deep into it’s toothy mouth and was solidly hooked.
“We actually took turns fighting that large hammerhead shark”, Mike said. “It took some thirty-minutes to wear that big shark down and when it came time to land the big hammerhead, Captain Jimmy Gavin retrieved a twelve-gauge shotgun from a storage compartment and shot the shark twice in the head”!
The 450-pound hammerhead shark took first place honors in a Jacksonville fishing rodeo for the year 1975. The large hammerhead shark was also mounted by Gray’s taxidermy.
After Jack Burling passed away, the shark mount was brought to Fernandina Beach by Jack’s son-in-law, Curt Dickey . Burlings’ shark is now on display at Amelia Angler Outfitters, 111 Centre St.
Shark fishing during the summer months is very popular, expecially if fishermen are looking to fight a very large fish. In fact Amelia Island has also played hoast to "Great White" sharks.
“Seas were perfect for offshore fishing as I navigated my charter guests Timmy Fedick, Marcus Mullis, Austin Vanzant and Landon Edgington to a popular Fernandina Beach offshore fish haven,” Captain Tony Peoples said. “After dropping the anchor and fishing dead on the bottom with fresh squid and fiddler crabs, my guests began hooking up to a variety of saltwater game fish including sheepshead, black sea bass and black drum.”
“Suddenly out of the deep ocean waters a dark shadow rose to the surface and attacked one of my customer’s hooked black drum. It was a huge white shark that had to have measured at least 15-feet, which soon began to swim slowly away from our fishing boat. My guest was now hooked up to a 1,000-pound fish that soon parted his twenty-pound fishing line”!
Several fishing seasons ago I was tarpon fishing with Hugh Stone and his grandson Hugh Stone III, when Hugh hooked a large hammerhead shark. After a four hour battle, Hugh finally landed a 500-lb., 14-foot hammerhead shark which is still one of the largest sharks ever landed off from Amelia Island.
On amore recent note, Keith and son Cutter Williams were fishing with me just north of the Historic Fernandina Beach for bull reds. Well the reds did not show up, but the dusky sharks did! I don't believe most people do not realise the numbers of large sharks that hold right off from the downtown docks. Most are attracted by the fish carcasses tossed in the water after fishermen clean their catches and the shrimp boats bi-catches are also a major attaraction to sharks in this area.
