Nurse sharks are primarily considered junk fish, but if you are on vacation here and don’t usually catch them they can still be a blast. They are very weak fighters; they don’t really make runs like other sharks, they just try to stick to the bottom. The thing that is interesting about them, is that they get huge they seem to average around 5 feet long, but its common to hook huge ones pushing 8-10 feet long. If you are used to catching freshwater fish, the sheer size of fish will make them interesting to catch. Once you have caught a few though, the novelty sort of wears off. They are common to catch on the patch reef and shallower reef edges. They have a tendency to hit grouper baits and have been often a cause for disappointment while fishing for grouper. Nurse sharks are common all around the Florida Keys and probably are one of the most common sharks.
Nurse Shark – Charter Fishing In Key West
The Florida Bay is chock full of them, and they have the tendency to keep hitting baits even once they have been caught once. Actually, all sharks do this sometimes but nurse sharks are particularly persistent. They will keep coming back and hitting the same bait over and over again. They will readily eat live and dead bait, anything fished on the bottom. Sometimes to avoid them while shark fishing you can suspend the baits off the bottom, except one time I have a blue runner on a cork , and no lie a 6 foot nurse shark ate it and jumped fully out of the water. I wish I had gotten a picture of it because no one will probably believe me.