This is a spoken-word YouTube vlog transcript of Mike Trotter and Michael Kunahan (aka No Donuts) shark-fishing in Southern Florida. The chunk covers instruction and practice casting, early-morning (2:00 AM) fishing attempts using plugs and bait (mullet and bonito), stopping at a local tackle shop, catching a small shark followed by a larger shark (referred to as a blacktip tentatively), and a dramatic long fight that Mike later times at 3 hours 27 minutes. The tone is informal, humorous, and celebratory; the piece emphasizes learning, camaraderie, and the physical challenge of landing a big shark.
Questions this video answers
3 hours and 27 minutes.
2:00 AM.
Chapters
Oh, my goodness.
I was lied to. We should start there.
Yeah, buddy.
So I was hanging out at First Form HQ and I received a call from somebody who I used to consider a friend. Friend before this point. Michael Kunahan. You guys might know him as no donuts. Well, he invited me to Florida, which sounded amazing given the fact that it was snowing in 20 degrees where I was. But what we're really doing is shark fishing.
Man.
That's called swag, man. You'll learn one day.
Hold it like this with my right hand.
Yeah, you gotta do a better job at instructions, man.
Right hand on the reel like this. So the line.
Yeah. Water cold, when you ask me. My experience with the outdoors, I mean, on the 4th of July, we used to go out and pop fireworks here and there. All right, here I go.
Why mine don't look like yours?
You got to put the line back on.
Look, look, look.
So.
Watch.
All right. Trotter's first time casting went just about as expected.
I mean, I think I did pretty damn good first day out. You know, once I got into my groove, I felt like with every stroke I continue to get better. So by tomorrow, I feel like we'll be catching sharks in no time.
Here we go now.
Bro. I'm feeling like I'm starting to get it too.
I'm gonna be the one to catch a funkin fish. Watch what I tell you.
Fuck.
Pull the line towards the rod reel. The lies on a roller. Why is that so hard?
Probably because it's my first time doing this. That. That could be it. Probably because it's my first time doing this and we're out here in the ocean. That could be the reason. I don't know.
This is going about as expected.
Why don't you have a. Have a protein bar? You're not yourself when you're hungry.
I just ate a protein bar.
You have another one.
So then we move into today, and we get up super early in the morning, we get in there and we. And we do it again. And there's. It's dark and all we got is this headlamp on. And I'm out there trying to cast and reel in and cast and reel in. And it did not go well. But I feel like we made progress and I'm better than I was yesterday. I feel like by the end of this, I'm gonna be the one to catch a fish. You mark my words.
We struck out this morning, but I think we got a pretty good shot at this location. We saw a bunch of sharks as soon as we pulled up. So we're going two different methods today. We're throwing the plugs like we did this morning. But we're also pitching bait out there as well. We got some cut up mullet and some bonito and let's see if we get Mike a shark today.
Early man, early. Tell you what, these damn sharks don't have a chance today though, big fella.
I can't believe we actually got them out of bed at 2 o' clock in the morning.
They out there.
Since they out there.
We gonna find them.
It's just, it's been a little bit of a struggle. It's been a grind for sure. You know, late nights, early mornings, no sleep and you know, we're trying so many different methods of fishing and places and, and you know, we hooked up with a couple sharks and they broke us off on the reef and it's just, it's been frustrating. But even if you're not catching fish, you're not landing fish. You know, we're still having a good time just being out here.
So we stopped here at the Snook Nook. Preferred bait tackle spot down here. Got some shark rigs, some weights and some bait to throw out there. When we throw a bait, we'll be throwing plugs. We're going to attack them from every angle possible tonight. Let's get them.
We going to catch one today.
Yo, this is the right kind of shark. It's about £100 light, but we're headed in the right direction. Nowhere but up from here.
Oh no, no, no, no no bro, he went. He probably took 200 yards.
Don't get it. Oh no, no, no.
Yet.
I'll get on top of him, you unhook it.
Finally caught some shark today. Alright, so we started off catching a little shark which I was excited about. I think we all were. I think we all were like, okay, if this is all that happens, this trip, we can all go home happily because we caught something. But then right after that we caught a pretty big ass shark. I think it was called a black tip. Maybe I could be wrong about that. My terminology isn't quite there yet. But we caught that one and that was exciting. I mean the only thing that came out my mouth when I, when I saw us catch it was yo, like that's all I could literally say because I was so fired up. But man, I think we, I think we're on to something. I think we got one more day of this and I can feel something special happen.
No dabble. Do you.
Man, that right there is damn near butte.
That sounded like.
That right there is damn near butte.
That's not how white people talk.
That's how y' all be talking when you catching them sharks. Not right there is down there butte.
All right, so we had a late night last night. So we woke up.
Why you always get to be the one explaining what we about to do and how we about to do it? What's my motivation? We kind of had a late night last night. You know, we were out there catching fish left and right. We was in it. We about to do our thing out there. We're gonna essentially catch more sharks, but. But I'm gonna let no Donuts tell the details on how that works. Essentially, we're gonna go meet up with.
A buddy of mine who's a shark guide out here. He has more equipment down here that is specific for bigger sharks. So we're gonna target some of those, and he's gonna kayak out some baits, and we'll see what we can do.
And we'll see what we can do. Essentially.
Man, Mike is a masturbator, bro.
A what?
A masturbator.
You got it. You're coming up on the braid.
They got to do it three, four, five more times.
So he have them all out there at once, then? Yeah.
I don't know if they're going to take turns or what.
We're sitting out there for a while, and I'm kind of feeling like, well, it looks like these guys know what they're doing, but it's been a couple hours, and nothing has happened yet. And I can't say I was disappointed, because I'm like, all right, well, we caught a few yesterday. If we don't catch any tonight. And then next thing you know.
Mike, you get on there on the harness.
You know, I'm thinking, no Donuts is about to jump in and take over like he normally does, and he didn't do that. He passed it to me, y', all, and I was nervous as hell, but. But we start wrapping the harness around me, and I'm like, all right, this is my moment. They strapped me in, and we just reeled that sucker and reeled that sucker. And as I'm reeling, I'm like, what is this that we have?
Come on.
You.
Oh, my God.
Oh.
God damn. Oh, my goodness.
Oh.
That is nuts.
We good? Get in here. Get in here.
Get in here. Mike.
Mike, you want to hold his head up?
I'm good. Oh, my God, bro. I can't. That's crazy.
All right. I'm gonna get out of there before his cousin show up, but God damn, that was cool.
Talk about workout, man.
That's.
That is no joke joke. Honestly, I don't. I don't think we could have written a better story of how we ended this trip, you know, to bring somebody new into this that's never done it before and to kind of like see things through their eyes and have them experience all this for the first time. Oh, man, it was awesome. I'm so glad that I let him fight that fish and let him land it, man. It was. It was awesome.
So people have been asking me how. How long was that fight with the shark in? I timed it. I had it clocked at 3 hours and 27 minutes to be exact. So I just felt like that was important to make sure we get in there.
