I took my buddy shark fishing today. We launched at sunrise and found some mullet to use for bait. We tried drifting and dragging bait on the bottom at first, but it was pretty awkward with the wind and fast tide coming in. We landed two that way. We moved over to a trusty spot that I’ve used for years next to Shute’s Folly. I anchored us up and got the chum bag situated hang off the bow, dripping and dropping fishy goodness. We put two live mullet on the bottom behind the boat and one on a float suspended about 5’ under the surface. Most of our hits were on the bottom, but we landed one off the float and had another fish take half a mullet off of it. We landed ten off of the anchored up spot, making for a grand total of twelve for the day. I kept one for the grill tonight and released the rest. It was a fun and action-packed day! All landed were sharpnoses. It really surprised me that we didn’t get any bonnetheads. The bite slowed at noon when the water stopped moving, and we headed back to the landing.
I spooled my reels with 30 lb mono. 6’ of 80 lb mono leader, then 2’ of steel leader, then a 7/0 Owner Demon circle hook. I tied on a 6 or 8 oz sinker, depending on the current, to the wire leader’s swivel with 4 lb mono fishing line. The sinker breaks away when a fish runs with it and starts fighting or if it gets hung on something on the bottom.
Semper Fi
18’ Sterling
115 Yamaha
Big Ugly Homemade Blue Push Pole
Looks like fun! I will go give em a try this weekend. My kids have been dying to go shark fishing in the harbour. I started using the circle hooks on the toothy critters myself. Anyone else wondering that’s the way to go. Less damage to released fish and less potential finger loss on the fishermans part!
Guns kill people just like spoons made Rosie O’donell fat.
I’ve caught a lot of sharks incidentally, but I think this summer i’m going to to try and keep a sharpnose or bonnethead, bleed it on the boat etc. Great pics
While drifting we got hits mostly 40’ and deeper. We reeled in lots of mullet heads on missed hook ups.
We anchored up in 35’ of water on a slope. Once I got the chum bag going, it was on. It was nonstop action after that. It was a good time as far as just catching fish goes.
Last night I cooked the fillets I took off of the one I kept. I rubbed a little olive oil on both sides and put lemon pepper on one fillet and Old Bay on the other. Five minutes on each side over charcoal. It was way better than I even remembered. I used to cook them over gas, but charcoal adds a different flavor that I love.
Gutting them immediately after catch is very important. I had my buddy pin the head down with the gaff and I used my knife to split the belly open and remove all the guts. Then I flush the cavity out with a jug of cold tap water and try to scrub any blood out with my fingers. Next is putting it on ice and packing ice in the cavity. I finish cleaning as soon as I get home.
Semper Fi
18’ Sterling
115 Yamaha
Big Ugly Homemade Blue Push Pole
From my experience, yes it does make a difference. It puts a ton of scent in the water.
I got a box of the cheap stuff from Walmart. I think it was about $6. A pack of disposable chum bags was about $2.50.
I broke hunks of the frozen chum off of the block and dropped them in the bag. I have found that when anchored up, hanging it off of the bow where it can dip up and down gets the juices and bits of fish going the best. We had lots of little fish coming up and munching on the falling pieces too.
Take some rubber gloves if you don’t want your hands smelling like fish chum the rest of the day.
Semper Fi
18’ Sterling
115 Yamaha
Big Ugly Homemade Blue Push Pole
