Land Based Shark Fishing - The 14/0 Debut

pbmang · July 25, 2012, 01:21:42 PM

My bass fishing has recently taken a back seat to a new passion of mine, which is land based shark fishing aka, catching big sharks form the beach. It is really about all I want to do anymore, and a majority of my fishing money is now spent on that gear. The only problem now is that I live in North Georgia, about 5.5 hours from the closest coast. But, even with such a drive, my buddies and my wife loaded up two weekends ago and made a trip to Jekyll Island to give the shark fishing another go. This was our second trip out there, with the first having some pretty great results. Being warmer, and also more experienced, we figured this time would be even better. Boy were we wrong!

With the heat also came the bugs. Getting to the areas we fished, you had to walk down a boardwalk, and boy was it torture. The mosquitoes would swarm all over you. In the two days we fished, I would be shocked if I had less than 30 bug bites on my arms and legs. On top of that, the tides were really bad this time, and the current was even worse. I have never seen a tide rise and fall as much as it did that weekend. In one of the pictures you can see me tying up a rock to use as a weight, and when the tide was really rocking, it wasn't holding. There would be a few hours each night we would just pull the baits in and sit because the current would just wash everything up on the beach. To hold a piece of squid on the bottom we were using a 6oz weight, and that usually weighed about as much as the small sharks that we would hook on that. The biggest rocks we had were no match for the 5 - 10lb baits we were dropping for the bigger sharks.

After two nights we did managed to hook up with one bull shark around 5 feet long, but a crimp let loose as we were pulling him up in the surf and he got away before we could get a picture. We also managed a large ray, which is the second large ray we have caught from this area. After messing with both the sharks and rays, the big rays scare me 1000 times worse than the sharks. The barbs on their tails are no joke!

Anyway, here are a few pictures I thought some of you may be interested in seeing. My wife came along and tried to take some "artsy" pictures, and some of them came out pretty cool, IMO! Plus, it shows off the 14/0 I made a thread about a few weeks ago. It cleaned up REALLY nice!

Keta · July 25, 2012, 01:51:24 PM

Nice! We are stuck 5+ hours from the ocean too.

Danhans · July 25, 2012, 06:10:21 PM

despite the bugs, it looks like a really nice place to fish..
and that ray is a monster! congratulations!

reelgood · July 25, 2012, 07:02:18 PM

nice photos! how far out did you kayak the baits?

pbmang · July 25, 2012, 07:27:38 PM

Quote from: Danhans on July 25, 2012, 06:10:21 PM
despite the bugs, it looks like a really nice place to fish..
and that ray is a monster! congratulations!

It is a nice area, and the beach is pretty deserted if you take a little bit of a hike. That is the second big ray we have caught in as many trips. I couldn't believe how big those things are, and just how much power they have.

This is the ray from the first trip we caught, along with some of the sharks we managed:

pbmang · July 25, 2012, 07:28:47 PM

Quote from: reelgood on July 25, 2012, 07:02:18 PM
nice photos! how far out did you kayak the baits?

Usually we tried to get them out about 200 - 250 yards, but that all depended on how strong the tide was pulling and if it was rough when we were paddling out.

CapeFish · July 25, 2012, 07:43:29 PM

Insane tackle, you can make the shark skip in along the surface with that reel!

Nice pics. Use a flemish eye before you crimp the cable or else you can also knot the cable and ditch the crimps if you are worried again about crimps

pbmang · July 25, 2012, 07:54:09 PM

Quote from: CapeFish on July 25, 2012, 07:43:29 PM
Insane tackle, you can make the shark skip in along the surface with that reel! Nice pics. Use a flemish eye before you crimp the cable or else you can also knot the cable and ditch the crimps if you are worried again about crimps

The real is a beast, no doubt about it! We also have 2 9/0's that we use for our smaller baits, and that is what all of our fish have been caught on so far. We do drop a giant bait on the 14/0 though, hoping for a true man eater. :-)

Crimping is still very new to us, but I don't know how well the cable will tie. Right now we are using 49 strand, 480lb cable, so it's pretty stout and I'm not sure how well it would hold a knot.

wallacewt · July 26, 2012, 01:32:33 AM

hi pbmang, we have 5m white pointers 200m out.another surfie swallowed up last week.makes 5 this year.
sharks are protected here,but not the surfies,might be worth a try.

redsetta · July 26, 2012, 01:47:23 AM

QuoteMy wife came along and tried to take some "artsy" pictures, and some of them came out pretty cool, IMO!

I agree - nice work!
Thanks for sharing.
Cheers, Justin
PS Wallace - still gotta paddle the baits out

pbmang · July 26, 2012, 03:51:21 PM

Quote from: wallacewt on July 26, 2012, 01:32:33 AM
hi pbmang, we have 5m white pointers 200m out.another surfie swallowed up last week.makes 5 this year.
sharks are protected here,but not the surfies,might be worth a try.

Thanks for the compliments guys! Now for my next great adventure. Taking apart and servicing some spinning reels...lol

miamipescador · July 26, 2012, 04:09:00 PM

BEAUTIFUL PICS!!
That one showing where you had to walk through just screams mosquitoes.
We do a bit of land based sharking down here in Miami as well, sure is fun fighting a fish that is just as strong as you.
What big baits are you using?

pbmang · July 26, 2012, 05:28:01 PM

Bonito are our go-to since the local tackle stores have them, but buying them can get expensive. Ideally we try and have enough bonito to get through the first night, and also have a few bait rods out for some stingrays. The first trip we filled up a cooler with rays, but this trip couldn't catch a single one. We did manage a barracuda for this trip though. One of the stores had a few so we gave that a go as well. After this trip I've thought about investing in a big freezer just for keeping bait between trips. It's tough having to drive down and hope you make it before the tackle stores close, plus it gets really expensive.

What about you guys?

miamipescador · July 26, 2012, 06:17:13 PM

I've really never done it off the sand, but do it from the piers and bridges from broward to the keys.
I use a 9/0 i have with a locked drag and a 10' shark rod.
My favorite bait for decent 100-200 lb sharks is moray eel. Have used stingrays, and others with good results as well.

I would like to invest in a kayak and do it off the beach sometime. We have powerlines in the water to worry about in the florida keys, any big shark can wrap you or just rub some of your line on there and if you're putting good pressure it will just pop.

onemako · July 26, 2012, 07:31:20 PM

I do quite a bit of boat, piers, and land based also. Down here we have mosquitos and yellow dog flies. I started using a thermacell bug repellent that cost about 20 bucks and refills are about 8 bucks. It works wonders and will last about 6 hours before replacing one pack.. Hey Miami I just got back from 10 days in Islamarada fished chan 2 and tea table passes. We drug the boat down nice 15 hr haul. Loaded up on blacktips, cudas, and several nurses. Caught l nurse that was pushing record size, 6 foot 7 inches weight was 187 on official scale. We wanted to keep him alive and two of us held him in the water alongside the boat for about a 2 mile slow troll to the scales. At times he appeared to be unappreciative of the taxi ride. Released him and he was no worse for the trip.