Delaware Micro trip ended with Biggest fish of my life ... So Far!

[Johnsfolly]

I have a friend Mark up in NJ that I have had a couple of great trips and one epic trip so far. He has been hosting a lifelisting friend of his this week. They have been struggling to get on fish due to the weather caused by Erin's passing. His friend, Steve Wozniak, is a bit of an infamous fishing lifelister. I think that I posted an SI article on OAF many years ago that talked about his fishing exploits and world record catches from all over the world. Mark and Steve did get at least one of his targets up in NJ, an eastern chubsucker. They could not fish for Steve's saltwater targets up there and headed down to Delaware to fish for sharks and rays with a guide friend of Mark's. There is a small micro called a striped cusk eel that Mark has caught previously where they were headed. Mark felt that it would be fine for me to meet up with them and try for the cusk eels while Steve was shark fishing. I also wanted to meet Steve. The water conditions were not likley to be great with the lingering effects of the storm, but the area they were going was blocked from the brunt of the bad seas by Cape Henelopen.  I figured that my chances in high water to catch a cusk eel was minimal and I had to be talked into going by my daughter. In hindsight I am really glad that I did.

As I got there, Steve had just landed a smallish, 4 ft, sandbar shark. They had landed a couple of clearnose skates earlier. I got introduced to everyone. I mentioned that I used to follow the blog of a fishing friend of Steve's and knew about tirps they made together. The most interesting blogs were those of trips to Mingo and Poplar Bluff in SE MO (a favorite area of mine and for @Ham and @FishnDave). That got the ball rolling and soon we were sharing photos of past exploits and fishing trips and talking about those species we still need for our lifelists.... All the while Steve had been catching a decent amount of smooth hound dogfish on pieces of squid. I was fishing fishbites and struggled to get a bite. Between 10 and 11 one of the bonito baits got bit and Steve was able to land his lifer sand tiger shark, No. 2,423rd ( may be off on the his total but within 10 species) species, one of the primary targets for the trip.

No one got bit on the release😉.

Maybe just a little wet.

The team put out more baits and we waited and fished for other species. I finally caught a spot on the fish bites and had some other small strikes without commitment. It was enough to pass the time. Just after 1 am, another of the big rods got bit. Steve and Mark called me over and asked if I wanted to land this fish. After the obligatory, are you sures..., I got on the rod. Now Steve did mention that if he has your phone that he may send some questionable photos and whether my wife looked at my photos. Well I sent this one to my wife🙄. It wasn't until I really looked at the photo that I now knew that he was not lying.

After a decent fight we could see that it was another sand tiger shark! Not only would this meet one of my goals in 2025, which was to catch a new ray or shark species, it would be the largest fish that I have ever landed.. so far!

And again no one was bit during the release. What a great surprise and another one of those epic fishing trips that I will never forget. I can't thank my sand tiger shark "Bro" enough for this opportunity.

[Quillback]

That's not the Apple Steve Wozniak is it?

[Johnsfolly]

1 hour ago, Quillback said:

That's not the Apple Steve Wozniak is it?

Yes he is that as well.

[Devan S.]

So cool. 

[dpitt]

Wow Epic!

[Quillback]

11 hours ago, Johnsfolly said:

Yes he is that as well.

Dude, you are running with the big dogs!

[Johnsfolly]

5 hours ago, Quillback said:

Dude, you are running with the big dogs!

At least I was that night😁

[Johnsfolly]

On 8/23/2025 at 6:36 PM, Quillback said:

That's not the Apple Steve Wozniak is it?

On 8/23/2025 at 7:39 PM, Johnsfolly said:

Yes he is that as well.

Jeff I dug deeper and confirmed that what I was told was incorrect and that Steve W of Apple and Steve W lifelister are two different people 🙄. I don't want to perpetuate a false association.

[Quillback]

5 hours ago, Johnsfolly said:

Jeff I dug deeper and confirmed that what I was told was incorrect and that Steve W of Apple and Steve W lifelister are two different people 🙄. I don't want to perpetuate a false association.

Well you had me going.  😃

[snagged in outlet 3]

6 hours ago, Johnsfolly said:

Jeff I dug deeper and confirmed that what I was told was incorrect and that Steve W of Apple and Steve W lifelister are two different people 🙄. I don't want to perpetuate a false association.

I was looking at your picture and pictures online of him and thought “well maybe?.