Pacemaker Fishing Forum

I just got back from Stuart, FL to fish for Goliaths and Bull Sharks with Captain Ben Chancey of Chew on This fishing (he's got a very large YouTube presence if you ever want to be entertained).  My buddies and I have had this trip planned for almost a year.  We scheduled it within a week of doing the same trip last year, and man were we not disappointed.  Fishing up the food chain is always fun, but can also be a lot of work; we had to run about 15 miles down the coast looking for diving birds in order to find the smallest baitfish.  Then we had a 20 mile run back in the other direction to our spot, where Captain Ben stirred up the 10-15 pound bonito with those baitfish.  Then, the bonito went on one of these bad boys:



For two years in a row, it has shocked me how quickly that enormous bait gets eaten.  Within two minutes, my buddy (this was his first time on the trip) had a Goliath hooked up and it took both of us to fight it.  About 10-15 minutes later, he boated the beast.  We released the fish, but not before getting measurements: 85" long by 76" in girth.  That works out to an estimated 615 pounds, and Captain Ben said it was the biggest Goliath that a client has ever caught in twelve years of guiding.  For reference, the guy in the picture below is about 6'4" and 300+ pounds.



Then it was my turn, so we dropped another bonito and got another bite fairly quickly, but I could tell from my previous experience that this wasn't a Goliath.  It was thrashing and surging far more than they do.  The fight didn't last quite as long, but it was every bit as intense.  I ended up boating this nearly 10' bull shark that was estimated near 400 pounds.



Just as last year, this was an incredible trip and despite waking up the other day with bruises in places I didn't know I had, I'd do it again in a second!  I have a lot of GoPro footage to go through, so there will be a video to follow at some point.