So, I called a friend, Captain Stuart Caulder of Goldleader Fishing Charters in the Wrightsville Beach area to see how fish has been. His response was that the redfish have been biting, with a lot of fish in the 5 to 10 lb range.

For kicks I asked if there is anything bigger biting. He quickly mentioned sharks and when I told the kids, their enthusiasm went from “oh-hum” to “that would be extremely cool dad”.

So, I lined up a trip hoping for a few hours of shark fishing and a few hours searching for reds.

We meet Stuart at 6:30 a.m. and quickly headed out for bait. Two dozen 6-9 inch Menhaden were netted in the back bays of the Inter-coastal Water Way and put in the live-well.

After a short trip of a ½ mile out into the ocean we started fishing. Within five minutes we had on our first shark. The fish took long runs and then went straight for the bottom. It took my daughter Stephanie 15 minutes to pull in the 30 lb “dusky” close to the boat.

While fighting the shark, a four foot hammerhead swam by eyeing the boat, looking for an easy meal. After we got the fish in she said her arms have never been so sore.

My son Daniel was next and hooked into another dusky that weighted close to 25 lbs. His fish swam toward the boat and was coming in easy until it was with in five feet. All of a sudden the fish had new life and immediately peeled off 40 yards of line. All the fish were caught with circle hooks, so releasing the toothy critter was made a little easier.

After baiting the hook with another menhaden, it was my turn. My fish struck the bait hard and quick. The shark took a nice long run to start off but I quickly subdued what turned out to be a small 15 lb hammerhead.

If the day ended now we would have been three happy fishermen, but Stephanie was not done yet. The biggest and meanest shark of the day was now hooked up. The fish went deep and stayed deep, but after a lot of hard work and a little help from Stuart, she got the fish up to the surface.

“Wow!!!” Stuart said. “This is the big one for the day.” An 80 lb bull shark was next to the boat with us wondering how we were going to get the hook out. Stuart cut the line near the hook and the monster swam away. He said the hook will rust, dissolve and eventually fall out in about a week or two.

We finished the trip off with Daniel catching another 25 to 30 lb fish. I caught a 25 pound brute. All the fish were released to fight another day.

The best parts of the entire trip were seeing the kid’s smiling faces, hearing the stories and having them say “Dad, that was cool, thanks for taking us fishing”. They even want to go fishing with dad again.

Stephanie is a sophomore at Carolina and Daniel is a junior in high school, so getting a chance to spend time with them is becoming even more special.