By Robert "Dutch" Linthout

My son and I have been fishing together ever since he was three years old.
We have fished for Bream, Bass, Catfish, Flatheads, Crappie, Stripers and all kinds of saltwater species, such as Speckled Trout, Redfish, Stingrays, Tarpon, small Blacktip and Sandbar sharks and on one fishing trip a pretty big Nurse shark. He loves any and all kinds of fishing and will pick up a rod and reel any chance he gets.

Spring Break
A couple of years ago him and his two fishing buddies, Andy and Brian, decided to go camping during college spring break and try to catch some fish off the beach at night. The Whiting were running and everyone was catching plenty and having a lot of fun. But after a while of catching hundreds of Whiting it does start to become boring, so he decided to use one of his heavier rods and put on a big hook and a big live Whiting, casting it less than 100 feet from shore.
As soon as the bait splashed into the water, something grabbed it and spooled him completely and then broke off. 200 yards of 20 lb test disappeared faster than ice cream on a hot summer day.
Frantically he respooled his reel, added a bigger hook, a long steel leader and a nice big fresh Whiting.
As soon as the bait had settled, it got grabbed again, this time Kenton fought the fish long and hard, figured that he had a shark, but unfortunately the hook snapped in half.
Then his buddies got into the act, with the same results. Fish bites, fish runs, line breaks!
They made a fast run to the baitstore and bought heavier line, bigger hooks, stronger leaders and the biggest spinning outfit they had. Back to the beach! During their three-day trip, they got broken off at least twenty times, but did manage to catch a big shark.
That was the beginning of an obsession.

Doing his Homework
The sharks broke off or got off the hook, but Kenton sure was hooked. Nothing is more aggravating than to break off and lose fish. I have always taught him as a kid, that when you start to fish for a new species of fish, to do your homework and find out as much about this style of fishing as you can. And, that's exactly what he did. He looked all over the internet to see what he could learn, and learn he did. There were entire websites dedicated to shark fishing and the amount of information available was staggering. He started visiting various chatrooms to learn as much as he could. He also became a member of the "Sharkboard" and took the name "Saltrat" as his handle.
He has been fishing off the beaches in Florida, Georgia and Alabama and managed to catch bigger and bigger sharks. I went with them on several of their fishing trips. I was there when he caught a 7 1/2ft. Sandbar Shark and to Jekyll Island in Georgia where he caught a 7 foot Lemon Shark.
Do you know how to spell Jekyll Island?
Millions of Mosquito's, Gnats and Biting Flies!
They would stay for three days and nights on the beach, taking a catnap now and then. The dedication and stamina of these boys was phenomenal!

Yakking your baits
The larger your bait, the longer the wait, the larger the fish! This is especially true in sharkfishing. You can, of course, catch a large shark on a small bait, but experience has taught us to go with the largest baits possible. Casting a 10 pound bait on a ten foot leader is not feasible. So how do you get a bait leader and weight past the sandbar?
The answer was the B D U or "Bait Deployment Unit" a surf kayak Kenton purchased and named. He invented all kinds of ingenious ideas for a sure and rapid bait release, once he was 200/300 yards offshore. Most of which failed as going though the surf dragging two heavy lines behind you was not as easy as it sounded. Especially when the equipment being used is not exactly designed for this kind of purpose.
When wind, current and surf are plotting to dunk you, getting your bait out there is a major victory. It doesn't look that difficult when you are standing on the beach, so I decided that I was going to try it too, but without having to drag the baits. It was great! I was flying through the surf on my way out and figured it was just as easy to get back in. Wrong! When a wave picks up the back of your kayak, the nose goes into the water, and before you know it, you are underwater.
At least I didn't have big hooks and bloody baits in the kayak.
In my case, I got dunked twice! The second time the kayak slammed on top of my head as a not so gentle reminder not to underestimate kayaking again.
Ever since, I was most happy to provide free advice and guidance from the safety of the beach.

Vacation Time, Sharkfishing time!
All summer long we had been looking forward to our vacation. Kenton was excited because having a boat meant he could shoot big Stingrays in the bay with a bow and arrow and use those for sharkbait at night! I made doubly sure that it was legal to shoot rays with a bow and arrow. Florida fishing regulations are many and complex, but after I was totally sure of it's legality, we set out hunting Rays and we did manage to shoot three of them. He was adamant that the full moon was the best sharkfishing time of the month and convinced us not to go to the restaurant the first night but to go to the beach and wait on the big one. Kenton had shot the three 10-20 pound Stingrays and proclaimed that this was great bait and use it whole!
We didn't get a bite!
And neither did we get a bite the second night!
The third night he got a big bite but the shark broke off completely. The next night he got one good bite but ended up with only a small part of the bait left over. He caught a few blacktip sharks, but nothing to write home about. According to him the big storm offshore was pushing in huge waves and making the water in the surf very murky.
By midweek three of his Sharkfishing buddies arrived and everyone wanted to go fishing, so we started a bit earlier than we had in the days past.
It took him 30 min. to rig his bait. Two tandem rigged(his invention)14/0 hooks, a 1 pound lead sinker with 4 bottom grabber legs(to keep the bait in place) and 25 feet of 7x7 3/32" coated wire for leader and the largest Stingray he had caught, a 22 pounder, for bait. This entire rig he tied to 1200 yards of 80lb test on a 12/0 reel, seated on a 100lb solid graphite custom made rod.
Man, we were ready!

The Big Bite
He deployed his bait at about 2pm in the afternoon. The rods (his 9/0 and 12/0) were set in the holders and put on the "clicker". Dark clouds and beginning thunderstorms were developing and some of the non hard core shark fishermen(namely me!) were contemplating wrapping it up, and call it a night. Some raindrops had already fallen and looking at the sky gave you the idea that maybe it was getting to be "Beer Thirty". In the middle of our discussions we heard a hard, fast and loud clicker go off. Kenton was no more than 25 feet away from his 12/0 and he was holding the rod before I could blink, he got strapped in, braced himself and engaged the drag. The fish didn't check. It was like a siren going off!
The clicker was not clicking, it was screaming! Hundreds of yards were disappearing from the spool like melting wax. "Cool it down" screamed Kenton, "my reel is smoking".
With what?
We had no water!
A fast decision was needed!
I don't know who had the idea but someone started pouring his ice cold beer on top of the reel. Such sacrifice!!!!
It took four beers and 700 yards for the fish to turn. Kenton was cranking like crazy trying to recuperate his line. Then the fish made another run and then another. In the meantime the thunderstorms had arrived. Loud thunder and lightning all around us and on and off rain too!
Talking about adrenaline!
Kenton had the hardest time getting the fish to go over the sandbars, but two hours later the fish came to the beach, totally exhausted, as was Kenton.

Revive, please revive!
This was a fully mature Bullshark slightly under 9 feet long. These kind of sharks have been known to attack humans and is considered to be one of the most dangerous sharks in the ocean. Right with the Tigersharks and Great Whites!
Kenton had no trouble getting the hook out, although the bite radius of the jaw was over 16 inches inches in width. Pretty scary! We took several pictures and then we tried to drag it back into the surf trying to revive it. Foolish, I know! But it takes a very, very long time for sharks to grow this big and the fun lies in catching, not killing it. Whenever he catches a shark, regardless of size he immediately releases it. So for a little over half an hour Kenton tried to revive this huge shark by himself, walking it through the water, washing water over the gills. I can't help but thinking what would have happened if the shark would have woken up. Brrrr.
All this effort was to no avail though. He could not revive the shark. Kenton made the decision to remove the jaws, which took another half hour.
So, then what?
What are we going to do with this fish?
Eat it? No way!
Large fish such as these are no good to eat due to the accumulated mercury in their meat.
What to do?
But then I had this genius idea! We'll just put it on top of one of the kayaks and use a second kayak to drag it out beyond the second sandbar.
Try to imagine. Four strong boys and myself tried to lift this fish on top of the kayak! We could not even lift this fish off the sand! Let alone lift it unto a kayak!
Each of us could lift more than a hundred pounds dead weight but we could barely manage to roll the fish on top of the kayak. You go figure how heavy this fish was. Close to 9 feet in length and over 5 feet in girth! Kenton managed to paddle it barely past the sandbars, when the trailer kayak with the fish rolled and the fish sank out of sight.
Now I know what "Xtreme fishing" means!
Do I want to do it again?
You betcha!
We had the greatest vacation ever!
Thanks, shark buddies, for all your help and "sacrifices".
D