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!
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Nice! We are stuck 5+ hours from the ocean too.
despite the bugs, it looks like a really nice place to fish..
and that ray is a monster! congratulations!
nice photos! how far out did you kayak the baits?
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:
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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.
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
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.
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. :D
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 ;) ;D
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. :D
;D
Thanks for the compliments guys! Now for my next great adventure. Taking apart and servicing some spinning reels...lol
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?
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?
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.
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.
Thats pretty cool Miami. I have a friend in south Florida who fishes a lot of the bridges and whatnot. One of these day's I'd love to get down there and give it a go.
It's funny you mention the big nurse shark onemako. A few years ago my wife caught one that went 8ft 1inch. It was a beast. We actually now have a replica of it hanging in our "game room." I think we are probably the only people on this planet with a mounted nurse shark, but it was her first "big" fish, and I promised her many years ago I would get a mount of her first big one (thinking it would be a 20lb striped bass or something similar). :o
I've caught a couple nurses there that have been close to 9 feet long over 200 lbs.
I have some videos on YouTube fishing for sharks and other stuff down there and here locally.
Don't know how to attach videos on here but here's a link
http://www.youtube.com/user/MiamiPescador?feature=mhee (http://www.youtube.com/user/MiamiPescador?feature=mhee)
Chunk those big rays up for bait ;D As for the cable flemish eye and double crimp or backbraid. If you back braid then wrap the serve in electrical tape or crimp over with copper tubing. To crimp the tubing take about a 1in piece and slide over then get about 3 to 4 bites with lineman pliers
if you get a nurse over 263 lbs you will have a new igfa record. The current record was set here in port st joe fl. It can be a lot of work to submit a fish for the record, but at least you get your name in the book. I keep trying but only came close on a few species.
We were just in Port. St. Joe last week. We were staying in Mexico beach and made the drive down there a few times to eat and check out the area. The sea weed was awful in Mexico Beach last week and made the fishing VERY tough, but I did scout out a few places I think would be good for some shark fishing. Our little group is in the early stages of planning a trip that way.
Sea weed (this was on Crooked Island):
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My wife's nurse replica mount (it doesn't look as big as it really is, you can kind of judge the size versus the couch):
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hey pb do you live in PC FL or nearby. Did you try the mex bch pier, its small but great shark fishing and other stuff. St Joe Bay is great plenty of sharks around eagle harbor. St. Joe bay is one of the best scallop places in all of Fl.
I am in North GA. I did fish the pier a little but I didn't have a good way to get a big bait out and it was pretty packed while we were down there so I didn't want to try using a balloon on the outgoing tide and just making a big tangle. But, we were staying in one of the townhouses in the same parking lot as the pier. It seemed like all the guys who were out there shark fishing were using smaller gear and small pieces of bait to catch 2 and 3 foot sharks. I walked out there every night hoping to find someone who was after some big ones and never found anyone.
We are thinking of heading to Mexico Beach/St. Joe for our next shark fishing trip. Especially after how bad Jekyll treated us this last time.
usually there is some young folks that kayak baits out for a couple bucks. I tried my daughters yak one morning and was afraid I was going to be able to pick up some Havana Ceeegars. Too old to paddle have to hope my mercury doesnt fail me. Dont let the size of that pier fool you. I have caught some monsters at night with the bait just a short ways from the pier.
onemaco...do you ever fish the cut over at St George Island?
hey AC I fish appalach some but usually fish more in st joe bay and crooked island near Tyndall. St George has some fine beach fishing for pompanos there. Houses in that area arnt bad either.
Fish Apalach a good bit, along with Panama City and Destin based on kids vacation schedule, I keep my boat over at Bay City in Apalach. Would love to live in that area....