I had a friend visiting for the weekend and surf fishing was on our agenda. Either the cold weather or bad luck made for tough times. I’ve had consistent action with 5-foot black tips all summer on casted gear, and at least sharpnose have been abundant most places–not this weekend. Friday afternoon we hit two walk-ins with casted baits. I was suspicious right away when we had a slow time making fresh baits in areas where I usually have 3 whiting in hand before I can get another rod rigged up. We fished 'til 10 ish, landed one big ray.
Saturday and Sunday mornings we paddled out to some big sand bars around an inlet. We fished the bars around low tide, both sides of the inlet, the front beach of one island…and produced very little. Joe had a new Avet and was yakking out baits, and I was wading and casting as usual. I wasn’t pleased with the gentle slope of the beach, but was confident we were getting out where something lived. Bait remained a problem and we had a hard time using two rods to stay ahead of two rods. Joe finally got a slow run on a half crevalle jack. I was convinced it was a giant ray, but it showed a little spirit eventually and turned out to be an 8’5" sand tiger. Neither of us had ever caught one. We didn’t land a single other shark over 15" the entire weekend. Joe was pleased to land a larger shark on his new setup. I just wish we’d seen a little more action during all the hours we had baits out. We had fun fishing the area with low winds and cool temps.
nice sand tiger, I thought for sure they would be gone by now. better than us though, we had baits out for over 32 hours this weekend and have nothing to show for it. even had some folks charter us and we couldn’t get them on fish going to try a a new spot this coming weekend.
Yeah, we caught that little jack and saw either jacks or bluefish busting small baits right off the beach for a few minutes. We got that shark on one half, and I had my only run break my braid on the other half.
Yes, that’s definately a rarity in August for our shallows. Sandtigers usually start to disappear early in June here. Good for a good pickup run, Sandtigers are like towing a big bucket of concrete across the bottom the rest of the way in. Good sets of jaws on that one. Friend of mine, Dave Wolfe from Virginia had the IGFA world record at one time ( 318) off Jennettes in Nags Head, NC. I’ve landed lots of them off the beaches of Delaware in the summer. Cool shark with a great set of choppers.
going to try a a new spot this coming weekend.