Florida fishermen reeling in sharks, fish

Right after watching the Talk To Tom episode about great white sharks heading to Florida, fishing boat captain Allyn “Big Al” Graham reached out to the show to say he has reeled in a lot of blacktip and bull sharks in the Mosquito Lagoon. “We caught 18 bull sharks in the backwaters of Edgewater this summer, some of them were 8 feet long,” Graham said. So, News 6 reached out to him to learn more and see what is biting right now. Graham said that in all of his years fishing in the lagoon, he had never seen so many big sharks in the backwater and that reeling them in was tough. But, now that it’s winter, Graham said he and the people he takes out on the water are seeing more fish than sharks. He said right now he is catching mangrove snapper, black drum, whiting, sheepshead, ladyfish, redfish and snook. “Our lagoon is coming back to life” after nasty algae issues plagued Florida’s waterways, he said. As January approaches, Graham said clients can expect to catch more trout and he knows the right fishing holes to take people to, adding he’s not afraid to hop around if the fish are not biting. “I have the biggest flats boat in our county, 25-foot Carolina Skiff that floats with 7 people on it in 10 inches of water, and sometimes we are moving up in that 10 inches of water to get those fish,” Graham said. If you are interested in fishing the Mosquito Lagoon, you can learn more about Big Al’s Inshore Charter Service on “alk To Tom. You can download the podcast from wherever you listen to podcasts or watch any time on News 6+.