Sharks part 7

Now that we have discussed tackle for shark fishing, lets discuss bait. Sharks are usually not line shy, look at the 800 pound aircraft cables we use for leaders, and definitely are not hook shy most of the time.

The exception here in So. California is the thresher shark in shallow clear water, you have to downsize your tackle, leader and hook size to be successful. Under these conditions, and where the average size fish is under 100 lbs, stealth enters the picture. I use a 30# class rod and reel, the reel is loaded with 25 to 30 lb. P Line mono.

Line to leader and leader to wire is handled by a pair of at least 120 pound Sampo ball bearing swivels.The hook is a 6/0 to 8/0 circle hook, made by Gamagatsu or Owner, there are other quality hooks out there but the author not having not used them very often, does not want to toot the horn of products he has no experience with. You would be very mad with me if I recommended a hook and it broke or was straightened out.

Stay with hooks in the upper price range, quality does not come cheap! You do not want to lose a large fish due to a cheap hook that broke! Been there done that! The 20 ft leader is made of 120 lb mono, the wire is 50 to 75 lb. test, and 10 feet long. ( single strand ) Why a long leader?

The long leader keeps the small main line from rubbing along the shark's skin ( like sandpaper ) and breaking. It also keeps the main line away from the rough skin in case the fish becomes tail wrapped, and at the end of the battle it gives a little more strength when pulling on the leader to bring the fish to gaff or release. Also by having a longer wire you can cut it just above the hook to let the shark go and not have to change wires every time.

Bait for threshers is simple, several large sardines, a small to medium frog ( mackerel ) or a mackerel fillet. Fillet's are usually fished under some type of floating device, so wave action keeps the fillet in motion. If you are fishing dirty green inshore water, and the chance for a large thresher is good, upgrade your tackle accordingly, go to the 80 to 120 lb. test main line and 400 lb. test wire, with 200 lb. leader.

Bait for makos, is on the larger side, the largest mackerel, whole bonita, tuna sides or whole tuna. I keep the different rod sizes rigged and ready, that way if a blue shark comes to the boat we don't have to waste a hook catching and releasing it. And when a mako comes to the boat we know what size rod to bait it with. For makos under 150 lbs. I keep a med. rod with a mackerel on the hook in the bait tank, when the shark shows, the macks tail is cut off, and wiggling furiously and squirting lots of blood from the removed tail, it is thrown in front of the mako, it is quickly gobbled up by the excited mako.

Do not hesitate to write if you have any questions about shark fishing or any other fishing questions you might have. Capt. Roy
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Shark Fishing part 6

The reason I carry and use three or four different class rods at the same time is you never know what size or type of shark will come to the boat. Usually blue sharks are the first to show up, if I have a shark charter and my customers want to catch a lot of sharks for fun, I will start out with a fifteen pound outfit for blues under 75 pounds and a 20 pound outfit for blues from 75 to 150 pounds.

These lighter outfits give the blues a fighting chance to "strut their stuff," a heavier outfit would just winch them in. It also gives me a chance to see what the skill level of my passengers are and help them improve their skills on sharks that we would release anyway. Putting a novice on a big mako for their first shark, will put undue stress on them, and that usually means a lost fish, a fish that could have been landed, if we had ironed out the wrinkles on some blues.

If I have clients who are bored by blues, and don't want to waste expensive hooks on them, we can just keep our baits in the boat 'till the makos show up. Usually the blues will split quickly as soon as a mako is close. When the blues leave suddenly, get ready for the "Right Kind" to show. We have all the rods rigged and handy and start chunking some mackerel pieces to get the shark "Ready to EAT." If a shark under 75 lbs shows in the chum, we use the 25 # class rod, 75 to 150 we use the 60# class rod, and over 150# we use the big gun, the 120# rod. As we are fishing for fun as well as meat, no use using too heavy of a rod for the small fish, as they don't fight well on tackle meant for their much bigger brothers.

Sometimes we will go down to 6 to 10 # test for a fish under 50# just because they give such a good showing on the light gear. On the light gear I use only circle hooks as there is no need for a hard hook set that might break the light line, just put the reel in gear and start winding, the circle hook sticks right in the corner of the sharks mouth making it easy to release the shark with no damage if you so desire.

It is also good practice as a 50# fish on 10 lb test is almost the same as a 600 lb fish on 120 lb test. A five to one line test to fish weight ratio. For the smaller makos we use medium to large mackerels, for the big boys and girls we use tuna slabs to whole 20 to 30 pound tuna for the 400 lb and up fish.

If you have any questions on shark fishing, please don't hesitate to write and I will try to answer your questions in such a manner as to make you a much better shark fisherman.
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Shark Fishing part 5

Well lets say we have found a floating kelp paddy over an underwater bank, this is the perfect place to start our shark fishing day. As this is also a prime spot for other offshore predators, yellowtail, tuna, bonita, dorado, I will usually start by trolling a couple of CD 18 Rapalas in mackerel colors by the paddy from several different directions, when I pass the paddy, I will throw several live sardines next to it.

Sometimes the fish are out as much as 100 yards away from the paddy. When you find a paddy in a prime spot spend some extra time checking it out, after I have trolled past and around it several times, I get up close and personal with it. I bring in my trolling lures and pull right next to the paddy and drop a heavy yoyo iron down at least a 100 ft and wind it up as fast as I can ( a good 6 to 1 gear ratio reel loaded with 40 lb test is perfect )

Once I am convinced there are no other gamefish present, or at least not biting at the moment, I go about 100 yds up wind from the paddy, put my chum bucket in the water and start my shark drift. I try to drift right by the paddy, but if I don't, I go back up wind and make adjustments to my starting point so I drift by about ten yards away. Now as I go by again I can start throwing surface iron when I am within range, and keep throwing various lures until I am out of range of the paddy.

Now that I am past the paddy I put away the casting gear and bring out the shark rods, usually one 25# outfit, one 60# outfit and one 120 # outfit. On the 25# rod I will use 20 feet of 200 # test leader with 10 feet of 175# single strand wire with a 8/0 circle hook. On the 60# rod I use the same 20 feet of 200 # test with 10 feet of 400 pound aircraft cable and a 12/0 circle hook.

On the heavy rod I use a 50 wide Penn International reel, 2 speed, with 600 yards of 120 # spectra braided line with a 100 yard topshot of 120# mono. The leader is 30 feet of 250# mono, and 20 ft of 800# aircraft cable, with a 12/0 to 16/0 laser J hook depending on the size of my bait. Tomorrow, shark fishing strategies.
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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!
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Shark Fishing part 2

There are many kinds of sharks here in Southern California, but my favorites are the Mako and Thresher, they are fairly numerous, can be caught in a variety of ways, and are great fighters. And I may add, they are awesome on the dinner table. Even a small shark is much larger than most of the other species we catch here in Southern California.

It is a beautiful July day on the Pacific Ocean, we are about fifteen miles offshore. There is a gentle breeze blowing in from the southwest, just enough to keep us cool, and move the boat along at a perfect speed to set a chum line for sharks. For a full days fishing I usually buy two four gallon chum buckets produced by "New Fishall Bait Company", this is the best chum you can buy here in my area.

These chum buckets also work for more than sharks, I find they can double your catches of bass and other game fish when your boat is at anchor, or drifting. All you have to do is cut several one inch holes in the bottom of a frozen bucket, tie it over the side of the boat about 1/2 in the water and they will put out a chum slick all day.

This not only puts a scent trail in the water the game fish can follow to your boat, which is great but also attracts a variety of small bait fish to the boat, that hang around and feed on the chum and they also become part of the chum trail. When the larger fish come up the chum line and see all the little fish swimming around your boat, the dinner bell goes off for them. You also have a ready supply of live bait usually not available at the bait dock.

A light spinning rod and a small hook with a small strip of squid works great for mackerel, and a #12 hook with a squid tentacle works wonders on smelt.

Back to our shark fishing trip: Our chum slik has been doing its magic for about an hour when suddenly the clicker goes off zzzzzzz, we let the shark have about twenty feet of line, put the reel in gear, and the line comes tight and the 12/O circle hook sets in the corner of the sharks' mouth ( no need for a strong hook set with a circle hook, just let the line get tight and the hook sets perfectly in the corner of the mouth )

Another advantage of circle hooks is if you miss the fish the hook isn't pulled out of the bait and the fish usually comes right back and eats the bait again. When the Mako feels the hook he goes airborne, sometimes ten to fifteen feet in the air. Now he takes off on a long reel smoking run, in less than one minute a hundred yards of line is gone from the reel, your heart is going almost as fast as the line going off the reel.

Twenty five minutes later theshark is at boat side, he looks to be about one hundred and fifty pounds. We quickly take a couple of pictures and let this one go by cutting the leader six inches from the hook, we usually don't kill fish this big as they are spawning size and are important fish for replenishing the species in our local waters. Most of the anglers who fish with me are sport fishermen and let most of the fish they catch go, keeping mostly smaller fish that have been hooked deep and have a poor chance of surviving when released.

The days of filling the freezer are over if we want to be able to catch anything ten years from now, or have a decent chance of seeing our grandchildren have the thrill of catching these wonderful game fish we cherish so much. So remember keep a few for dinner, let all the big ones go to produce the next generations thrills, and cherish every moment you spend fishing.

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Sharks part 1

Shark fishing is one of the most exciting forms of So. California angling you can do. The fish are big ( makos and threshers ) fight hard, jump frequently, and taste wonderful, and there are plenty of them out there.

Unlike marlin, whose anglers average one fish every three days, I have caught 15 large sharks in a day ( 14 released ) and average 5 to 6 a day. These are large slow growing fish, and most should be released, keeping a small fish for dinners for a couple of days, and letting all the larger breeding specimens go to repopulate the ocean. Most of the smaller fish end up being food for the big boys anyway, so if I am going to harvest one, it will be one of the small ones.

The larger fish are too precious to the ocean environment, to catch once and eat. If you want a picture, leave the fish in the water and after taking a couple of pictures, cut the wire near the mouth and let it go. Do not bring the fish into the boat, his thrashing around on the deck can seriously injure or kill the fish even hours later. Please treat these special fish gently, ( all fish are special, and need to be treated gently before release, so they can live to fight another day ) so our children and grandchildren can have the thrill of catching one of these magnificent

creatures.

Tomorrow I will get into tackle and tactics for success in shark fishing.

P.S. We are having a banner year on mako sharks, they are in close this year and in the best numbers I have seen in 15 years. Only a short run is required to get to the fish. To plan charter, see my ad at the top of this page.

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