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SHARK FISHING INFO AND SAFETY TIPS!
Though blood itself may not
attract sharks, its presence in combination with other unusual factors will
excite the animals and make them more prone to attack. The most dangerous
species in order of documented attack records are: the great white shark, bull
shark, tiger shark, gray nurse shark, lemon shark, blue shark, sand tiger,
several species of hammerheads, and the mako. Some species such as the nurse
shark are extremely sluggish and have poorly developed teeth, but even these
have been known to attack man when excited or disturbed.
"You gonna whistle
Dixie, or are you gonna paddle?"
Yellow, white, and silver seem to attract sharks. Many divers maintain that clothing, fins, and tanks should be painted in dull colors to avoid shark attacks.
Considerable research has been devoted to finding out what
stimuli attract sharks and incite them to attack. Results are mostly
inconclusive, but some general principles have been advanced: Certain types of
irregular sounds - like those made by a swimmer in trouble or an injured fish -
seem to attract sharks from great distances. Sound, rather than sight or smell,
seems to be a shark's primary cue for moving into an area. Shark fishing
is not only fun but the meat is as tasty, if not tastier than some of the
gamefish that most people catch. Mako is some of the best tasting meat in the
ocean! You need good quality gear to handle the strength of these massive beasts
such as plenty of cable leaders, large shark hooks,chum, rope, and film in your
camera! On my way out of the harbor I catch FRESH bait and put them in the bait
tank. Freshly caught bait such as a plump mackerel will cause sharks and tuna to
abandon any sort of caution!
Mackerel feed along the rocks and are quite easy to catch. Just
hang some punctured wet cat food cans over the side, or any type of ground fish
meal. Shake them every now and then to get the chum out, and the mackerel pounce
on your very light shrimp fly rigs! You can easily get 20 to 30 of them in a
matter of 15-30 minutes! Use very light spinning gear to get your baitfish and
don't handle them. Once brought aboard just use the handle of a spoon to twist
the hook out of their mouth and let them drop into your bait tank. Half of the
time they just flop off of the hook with little or no assistance. This way they
remain fresh and don't get the "human" smell on their oily skin that
will also contaminate the rest of your bait, be it sardines or anchovies, etc.
Any bait left over from previous trips should be ground up and mixed with sand,
bread, or any type of fill that will disperse your chum and keep it below the
surface.
Looking for sharks offshore is just the same as looking for tuna.
Try to find the areas where colder bands of water meet up with warm bands of
water. This is typically where gamefish hang out, and in turn where sharks hang
out too because sharks eat tuna (along with everything else in the ocean).
Monitor your water temp gauge while motoring to find these areas. Also trolling
or chumming along underwater ledges, drop offs, or submerged ships, boats, etc.
will prove to be productive. Once found, record these areas in your GPS for
future reference! If you happen to come across tuna boils or moving schools of
tuna or dolphin, get you boat out in front of them and put the lines in the
water! Tuna usually follow dolphin, and sharks follow everything only to be so
kind as to eat any stragglers that fall behind! You can get multiple
hook-ups this way by first landing your tuna, then chumming hard for the sharks
immediately thereafter!
Have some heavy gear rigged up and ready to toss before
getting to the fishing grounds. Reels in the 6/0 to 12/0 size range loaded
with 50-80 lb test is optimal, as well as having your light spinning gear to
catch more baitfish that come to the boat looking for a free meal in your chum
line. Put your chum bucket in the water and start to shake some of the particle
out by pulling up and down on the line every few minutes. (If you buy pre-made
frozen chum it may take a few minutes for the particles to defrost.) Once you
see which way the chum line is drifting you will know where to put your rigs. We
sell pre-made double shark hook rigs that work extremely well. Nose and gut hook
your bait and toss it into the chum line. If the bait is too small use a couple
of rubber bands to fasten the hooks along side the body, putting one around the
gills, and one around the tail. Your live bait will swim erratically attracting
every shark for a mile!
We also sell shark hook rigs that come equipped with a heavy duty rattle to make
your bait extra noisy in the water, as well as sell shark slow troll lures
pre-rigged with heavy cable leaders and double hook rigs. Toss a few of these
out when trolling 2-4 knots or slow it down and put a live bait on the hooks of
one of these rigs for added enticement! Once trolled bait starts to loose its
spunk, rig it onto a floating drift rig to keep it at the surface and tease the
sharks into a bite!
It wont take long before your poles look like
horseshoes. Fight the fish and have fun! Once you tire them out (I mean really
tire them out), if they are small enough you can bring them on board and put
them into large ice chests, on ice of course. This will slow them down quickly.
If they are too big to get into your coolers, put a sharp knife into the head to
neutralize them. (Use caution when doing this as it will cause the fish the do
the "Ache Breaky" in your boat once the nerve line is hit!) I don't
recommend doing this to larger sharks, say 5-6 feet and longer. They can do
quite a bit of damage to your boat and to you if not controlled.
This is when your tail rope becomes useful. As
the rod holder brings the shark to color, position it along side the boat. The
leader man grabs the leader (with thick gloves) and holds the head steady facing
the bow so the rope man can loop the rope around the sharks head and with the
help of any current from a foreword moving boat, slip it down over the sharks
body until it get to the tail. You then tighten up the noose and tie it off to a
cleat and tail drag the shark until it will no longer become unruly. (44 magnums
work well too).
Gutting the fish as soon as possible is highly
recommended. Urine and blood left in the fish will taint the meat and take away
from the flavor, if not ruin it. Having on board plenty of gallon size freezer
bags is great for separating cut up fish and transferring directly to your
freezer. This way you only have to defrost what you will eat at one time, and
none of the tasty meat will go to waist. Once at home, rinse the meat in clean
water and dip in lemon juice before freezing. This will kill any bad taste.
Defrost, marinate in teriyaki, lemon garlic sauce, or Italian dressing, then
grill or bar-b-q to taste! Sharks don't have bones so large bites are advised!
View the great line up of shark gear that we offer, as well as links to the gaff
and harpoon page. If you want to churn things up, use a harpoon attached to
100-300 feet of rope with a large Polyform A series buoy at the end. Stick the
harpoon into the back just behind the head with a lot of force and let the buoy
tire him out if it is too much to handle or if the boat that you are on is too
small, then you can pull him up with the rope when the buoy stops moving. This
method works very well for large tuna too!
