# Hall Pass attacked by mako and boat load of tuna, full report



## Aqua Therapy (Jul 25, 2010)

Left out of Gulf Breeze at about 7am. Target was tuna and bottomfish. Had a seasoned crew of Lee and Mike. First stop was on a bait spot and managed to load the well full of herring and cigarminows. We then made a long run to a ledge with about a 20 ft drop off. Got anchored on the spot and hooked up a blackfin in seconds with the first bait hitting the water. It was a great sight to see that black and gold color under the boat doing circles. The tuna and bonita were as thick as gnats in the summer. We were almost hand feeding them behind the boat as they boiled and blew up around the boat. Anything that touched the water cas consumed instantly live bait, chunk bait, dead pinfish. Double hookups was the norm for the morning. We managed to put around 10 quality blackfins in the boat all 15 to 20 lb fish in about 1.5 hrs. I told them to stop fishing as we are moving to get away from the tuna and catch some bottom fish. We made a short move and re-anchored and virtually every bait that hit the bottom was nailed shortly after. We bent a lot rods catching gags, red grouper, scamp, amberjack, and vermilion snapper. Had many fish busted off like normal. I decided to put out a flat line but wanted a bait big enough to deter bonitas. So I put out a live white snapper with a steel leader for a wahoo maybe. that got nailed about 5 min later and I went to work on the fish. After about 5 min I was sure it was a big shark and asked if some one would finish this fish off. Lee gladly stepped up to the plate and went to work with the 80 lb braid and 15 min later had about a 7 foot shark next to the boat. We continued to bottom fish when I looked next to the boat and saw a huge dark figure moving under the boat. I quickly figured out it was a monster mako shark. Not your average mako but a 13-14 ft mako. He then came straight uptop and checked us out swimming withing 10 feet of the boat with dorsal fin out of water. Next was like something you see out of the movie jaws. The mako swam straight up to the stern of the boat and decided to see if my engine was edible putting some nice scrapes and teeth marks on my yamaha. I looked at the guys and said you want to have some fun? So we decided to take some 10 lb bonitas and see if we could hook him up. I didn't bring the 80 wide. All we had was a tld 25 loaded with 50 line. This is like takeing a knife to a gun fight. I said we have no chance of landing this beast at anchor, but we can have some fun maybe a real good jump.We put a bonita in the warer and had a lot of fun pulling the bonita away from him just as he would charge on it. So we fed him 3 large bonitas and he bit above the leader on one attempt, and bit throught the steel leader on another attempt, but finally put a hook in him on the 3rd. However mr mako did not even feel the line. For 10 min we fought him however he did not know he was hooked. We tried lots of pressure and tried multiple hooksets in attempt to get a run from him however he just kept swimming around the boat looking for more bonita to eat. We finally just bust him off and decided to head home. This was for sure my favorite trip of the year. Just shows you never know what you will run into offshore. Hope you enjoy the picks.


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## Aqua Therapy (Jul 25, 2010)

I am trying to figure out how to add more pictures of the mako.


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## Aqua Therapy (Jul 25, 2010)

I need some help on how to add more pictures to this post.


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## lobsterman (Sep 30, 2007)

For some strange reason mako's don't like the taste of Yamahas. I bet it was an awesome sight though.


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## fisheye48 (Sep 28, 2007)

You can only put so many per post....just reply to your post and add more


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## Realtor (Oct 1, 2007)

wow, how awesome is that!


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## Aqua Therapy (Jul 25, 2010)

Ok, here are some of the mako pictures, If you look you can see us teasing the mako with a 10 lb bonito in some of the pics.


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## Aqua Therapy (Jul 25, 2010)

Ok this one gives you a good vies of how fat this mako was!


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## lobsterman (Sep 30, 2007)

To quote Brody. " you're going to need a bigger boat."


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## cobe killer (Apr 13, 2008)

looks like one heck of a fun day!!!to bad the mako didn't feel like fighting ya.


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## what next? (Apr 8, 2010)

now thats a day to remember!


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## Kenton (Nov 16, 2007)

Wirelessly posted (Matt)

Well hell! Had I known it was going to be a day like that I would have told the wife to move by herself.  great catch guys. I know that trip must have been a blast. Maybe I will be able to make it out before tuna season is over.


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## danieljames84 (May 28, 2009)

Sounds like a amazing trip! I cant wait to go tuna fishing in a few months!!!


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## Clay-Doh (Oct 2, 2007)

Great story man!


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## Matt09 (Jun 6, 2008)

We had the same thing this happen will a big shark begining of the summer at the Chevron, it was a 15ft dusky thou, haha. Tried to hook him on a vs200 instead. Haha didnt work out to well.


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## mbe5003 (Dec 2, 2009)

Thanks again Adam it was a great day of fishing. 

Those pictures really don't do that mako justice, that thing was a monster.


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## Aqua Therapy (Jul 25, 2010)

more pics


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## jack2 (Mar 19, 2010)

rrrriiinnngggg.......hello........hey, jack, you wanna go fishing?..........hell yeah man......what time?....yes, captain aicardi....i will never say no again........:thumbup:

jack


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## MSViking (Oct 11, 2007)

Sounds like a great day on the water! I am with you on the sharks, Mako or not, you can have them!!

Robert


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## Jason (Oct 2, 2007)

Sounds like an AWESOME trip!!!!!


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## thecalmbeforethestorm (Nov 6, 2010)

great pics man !!!


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## NaClH2O (Feb 14, 2008)

Great story and pics. Would have love to seen that big guy go airborne about 100 yds behind the boat.


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## Aqua Therapy (Jul 25, 2010)

Nothing like using 10 lb bonitas for you bait. No question that this shark would have investigated and eaten you if you some how ended up in the water.


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## fishsticker (Jan 11, 2009)

great day fishing and good story.


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## Aqua Therapy (Jul 25, 2010)

Even more pics


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## wetley49 (Sep 25, 2010)

Makes me wanna go swimming


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## Eastern Tackle (Jul 6, 2009)

Nice job guys. Every mako I have ever killed had a deep blue colored back, but those were off NC. Looks much more like a white shark, but I know pics can be deceptive.


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## Texasgator (May 2, 2008)

That shark is big enough to be a liitle unnerving even in your boat!


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## Inn Deep (Oct 3, 2007)

Great Trip!! I love Edge Fishing this time of year. Too bad the Mako wouldn't jump a lil for you. I had a big one like that jump 5 times around my boat one day. It's spectacular seeing them jump.


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## jdhkingfisher (Aug 6, 2010)

insane man. wow.


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## olbennie (Mar 20, 2009)

Texasgator said:


> That shark is big enough to be a liitle unnerving even in your boat!


My thought exactly.


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