New York Mets take break from catching fly balls to catching sharks

PORT ST. LUCIE — Quick question. Which is more fun: Catching sharks or catching fly balls?

Better ask the New York Mets.

The first week of spring training, a few members of the New York Mets spent an afternoon catching sharks as a way to put a little different twist on the typical spring training regimen. For most among the 15 players and coaches enjoying the excursion, it was the first time any had caught and released a shark, or any large game fish for that matter.

The whole encounter was brought about by the timing of a spring migration coinciding with spring training. Each year, a coastal shark migration takes place in Florida waters eerily close to beaches packed with sunbathers and snowbirds.

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But what surprised most of these professional athletes was the power and strength in the fight of an 80-pound blacktip shark, let alone how easy it was to hook one within casting distance from the water's edge of a South Florida beach.

"As a team, we ended up catching and releasing about 12 that night," said Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo who stayed behind on the beach to battle more sharks after many of his teammates left. "They put up a great fight. We got one which was really jumping in the air and was on top of the water for much of its fight. These sharks are only about 70 pounds, but they're all muscle. It was so cool to be able to see them up close."

Mets manager Mickey Callaway agreed.

"It's incredible to have a shark at the end of your line," said Callaway, who reeled in his as part of a double-header caught and released with Mets pitcher Matt Harvey. "You don’t know how big it is, and it's pulling, and your heart’s pumping. Is it a huge 14-foot hammerhead or just a 4-foot blacktip?"

The fishing bug

Callaway is no stranger to fishing, but he had never caught a shark before the trip. Near his home in Santa Rosa Beach, Fla. he is a member of boat club and regularly fishes during the off-season for redfish and Spanish mackerel in Santa Rosa Bay in Florida's panhandle, or offshore for red snapper, triggerfish, grouper and amberjack.

He fished for bass in ponds and lakes near where he grew up in Memphis, Tenn. and learned how to fly fish after trout on the Little Red River in Arkansas.

Prior to pitchers and catchers reporting, Callaway and Nimmo were supposed to fish offshore together, but a conflict prevented Callaway from attending. So Nimmo ventured out with Josh Jorgensen of the BlacktipH YouTube channel and Capt. Carl Torreson of Port St. Lucie, owner of Slob City charters. That was when he caught and released his first sailfish — a fish Callaway jokingly said was supposed to be his first sailfish.

"I came back in from the trip and showed skip the photo of me and Josh holding up the sailfish and he was so jealous," Nimmo said.

"I've been wanting to catch one of those forever," Callaway said.

But Callaway hopes the team's shark adventure is remembered as more than just a fishing trip. It's one of those diversions and shared experiences that could bring some members of the team a little closer together when the demands of the long baseball season are pressuring.

"Will something like this carry through into the season? Absolutely," Callaway said Wednesday. "Any time you can get together off the field and go to dinner and have a close-knit group together it's essential."

Bucket list

Mets catcher Kevin Plawecki was one of the players who reeled in his first shark.

"I wound up being one of the first guys to reel in one of the sharks which is ironic because I'm not a fisherman at all — in fact, I'm far from it," said the Indiana native. "I've never really been a fisherman. I don't like eating fish. But it was pretty cool to have the opportunity to catch a shark. My arm muscles were burning pretty quick, went numb in like two minutes, fighting that sucker. Plus there was a lot of pressure because we hadn't had a bite in about three hours."

Plawecki was asked if he had been bitten by the shark fishing bug.

"Not really," he said. "I crossed it off my bucket list so for me there is no need to get back out there."

Nimmo, however, has a different appreciation for it. He grew up in Cheyenne, Wyoming, about as far away from a coastal shark fishing experience as one can get, and has capitalized on his time in a region crazy about sport fishing. He said catching and releasing sharks and sailfish is a lot different than fishing mountain streams for trout like browns, rainbows and cutthroats.

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Last year, Jorgensen and Torreson guided Mets pitchers Steven Matz and former Mets pitcher Sean Gilmartin to an offshore fishing encounter with giant bull sharks. He said last week the blacktip shark bite along Florida's east coast was "epic."

"This may be the best blacktip shark fishing we've seen in the past three or four years," he said. "When we got to the beach Friday, I flew my drone north and could see about 500 blacktip sharks a mile away migrating slowly to the south."

Jorgensen said it started off slow, but after dinner, it picked up perfectly as the sun began to set. They used dead jack crevalles and catfish as bait and cast them out with a Shimano Saragosa 20000 saltwater spinning reel on a 12-foot St. Croix rod. He was using his custom BlacktipH monster shark rigs with a 16/0 hook and six ounces of weight.

Watch your toes

Nimmo was surprised how easy it was to catch a shark that close to shore.

"It's unbelievable. There’s people on this beach and we’re setting up to shark fish," Nimmo said. "Literally on the aerial photos you see what looks like grass in the water, but its actually sharks. It's comforting to know there are so few bites, but during this month and half period, I might stay out of the water."

Jorgensen said once the sharks start getting a little fishing pressure, the catch rate goes down. They get a little more wary of baits and boats.

As for Friday, Jorgensen said it seemed like the Mets had a good time.

"They caught a lot of fish, and that was my goal, as it is with my YouTube channel," said Jorgensen, who lives in Palm Beach County, where he took the Mets fishing. Jorgensen has nearly 785,000 YouTube subscribers and has at least two fishing videos with more than 36 million views on each. He can be found on all social media. He said the "H" at the end of the name "BlacktipH" stands for hunter.

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"My goal is to promote the sport of fishing and make it exciting to go fishing," he said. "The more kids who go fishing, the fewer who will end up doing drugs. Fishing is expensive."

Nimmo agrees.

"That was definitely something you put in your journal and a memory you never want to forget," Nimmo said. "It's humbling to see a fish as majestic as as a shark come out of the water so close to land. And Josh is such a great guy. There is so much preparation that went into that shark fishing trip and he is so devoted to it. We put a lot of time into our craft, and it's nice to see someone else put that much time into their passion."