Shark Fishing part 3

As you pull your boat out of the harbor and see the vast expanse of thePacific Ocean stretch out to the horizon, and you know it goes for thousands of miles past the horizon, you ask yourself a question, Where do I look for sharks in this vast expanse of water? Fishery biologists tell us that more than 90% of the ocean is barren of fish ( this is also true of lakes and rivers, 90% of the fish is concentrated in 10% of the ecosystem )

What you are looking for is a concentration point. Rivers, lakes, bays, oceans, the fish will mostly be at concentration points. A concentration point is any place that will serve to make fish hang out in a certain place. It can be as big as a rocky point jutting out in the ocean from the shore, or as small as a floating kelp paddy the size of your kitchen table.

It can be as small as a floating buoy or an underwater mountain that is 100's of feet from the surface. Why do fish hang out around these spots? What makes them different from another spot nearby? One word, FOOD!

All bodies of water have a food chain, plankton are eaten by minnows, minnows are eaten by small fish, small fish are eaten by larger fish, and they are eaten by sharks. Find a concentration point for plankton and you have a good area to look for larger predators. An underwater bank or island, causes deep currents to flow to the surface, and bring nutrient rich water up to areas where there are very little nutrients. The bait fish concentrate there to feed on the rich plankton feast from below, the game fish come to eat the minnows and the sharks are there to eat them.

Floating kelp paddys concentrate fish in another way, imagine a mouse or rabbit out in the middle of an empty field, an easy meal for any predator as there is no place to hide. It is the same for bait fish out in the middle of an empty ocean, no place to hide! Now picture a large piece of float ing kelp, just like a brier patch in the field hides our mouse, the kelp paddy gives the minnows a place to hide. I have seen giant schools of minnows swimming around under kelp paddys. This is the grocery store for game fish in the area where no other cover is available. The bottom is 100'S or 1000,S of feet below.There is no other place to hide. A paddy in the open ocean is good, a paddy floating over a bank or other under water structure that causes nutrient rich water to flow up to the surface is prime!