Bonnethead Shark, It's What's For Dinner!

Today was a nice day over at Jensen Beach causeway.  Fishing was slow with only 3 bites all day, but it was still profitable, so to speak.  I had a good solid catch of a 3 foot Bonnethead Shark, for one thing.

3 foot Bonnethead Shark

Meet Ms Bonnethead.  This is a female.

I'm thinking how good this fish is going to taste, smoked with Applewood

Fish score today at the causeway:  Me, 2 wins-1 tie-0 losses, fish,0 wins-1 tie-2 losses.  Landed fish were the bonnethead and a hardhead catfish I tossed back....it was an anticlimax after the shark.  Last fish, I actually managed to get to the causeway pier before it had to be cut loose.  It was a really big stingray, about 4 feet across the wings and about 10 feet long, counting the tail.  It had to weigh in around 250-300 pounds, give or take.

We had to cut it loose, because:

 a) it was just too big for the landing net.  It woiuldn't even fit in to the hoop and I have a big hoop on my net and even if I got it into the net, it was too heavy for it!

b), I didn't have the 5 or so guys with gaff hooks to haul it out and onto the pier.  I still count that as having successfully catching the fish, though, and only wish my wife had been able to get the picture of the fish.

The coolest aspect of the whole ray fight is I finally got to hear something my Grandpa told me about when I was a wee kid and he was teaching me to fish with my little toy fishing pole in the channel behind the cottage:  I got to hear my fishing line singing, right at the edge of it's breaking strain.  There was this high pitched musical note ringing off the line, right up at the top edge of my hearing range.  How cool is that?