# I want to go shark fishing.......



## Breeze (Mar 23, 2012)

What do I need to outfit myself with to go shark fishing? Do I have to have a small kayak or raft to get the bait out far enough? What test line do I need... and what kind of tackle do I need? Where would be a good place for a newbie shark fisherman to go? Do I need to have someone with me for safety when bringing the shark on land or is it a one person job? What size shark can I take home and eat? Are they only caught from shore at night? Anyone going shark fishing saturday night that wouldnt mind a newbie hanging out and learning the ropes?

Lots of questions, but never caught a shark before....


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## GrayMan (Mar 17, 2011)

Lotta questions in a small space but I'll try to give you a few answers. For starters, if you google Texas Shark Fishing, the website for TSF will come up, they have an excellent free online handbook that covers just about everything you need to get a good start at land based shark fishing, take a look at it! I use a Penn Senator 9/0 filled with around 1,000yds of 100lb braid hooked onto a heavy 7ft. offshore rod. I make my leaders pretty much in line with the TSF Handbook and have had great success with them. I use a kayak to run my baits to an appropriate point off the beach. The yak makes getting the bait out easy and quick, and it doesn't take a big fancy one to do the job. As far as landing and handling, while you usually can do it yourself and most of us probably have at one time or another, another set of hands is invaluable and generally safer. Finding someone to go with you and making it a team effort will pay off for you and keep you from getting too bored on slow nights. I'm over in the gulf shores area on the alabama side, feel free to get ahold of me if you ever wanna come this way and try it out.


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## Chris V (Oct 18, 2007)

I also use Penn 9/0s filled with braid on 6-7ft glass rods. I use about 4-5ft of either 275-400lb cable or #12 singles strand wire connected to 20ft of 200lb mono via heavy duty swivel rated to at least 200lbs. The terminating end of the mono can be either another heavy duty swivel or a loop to connect a snap swivel to but I definitely prefer to use another swivel and tie directly to it. I make my weights from a heavy bank sinker of 10-12 oz with "spider" arms made from cutting a metal coat hanger and then taping the arms around the weight. This helps keep very large baits in place in the surf. You can rig thses weights break away or fixed. I mostly use a fixed weight as I've never felt I've lost any sharks due to its placement on the leader. Baits can be just about anything but sharks are not as mindless as many would like to think and a fresh, locally caught bait will outfish something frozen from the store. I use Ladyfish, Bluefish, large pieces of King Mackerel, Jack Crevalle and Rays. Theres no doubt in my experience that a 6-8lb Ray with its wings cut off will catch more bull and Sandbar sharks than anything else. 

I, like most, paddle my baits out with a yak but I have taken some very large sharks by simply casting from shore. Like stated in the above reply, handling them is usually not too difficult but its the smaller sharks you really have to be more careful with. The are harder to get under control and very flexible. I de-barb all of my hooks and with a simple dehooker you can usually retrieve your hook, but only do so if it can be done safely and at a fair distance from the mouth. If not, cut the leader as close to the mouth as possible. 

When releasing, just hold the dorsal and mid section of the shark and "walk" him through te water until he responds. Let him go and get another!

Hope this helps.

If you are looking for a shark setup, I have one for sale in the fishing gear for sale section. Its a Penn 9/0 with 100lb Tuf Line braid and a 7' heavy duty rod with foulproof guides and roller tip. This rod has caught a pile of big sharks over the last few yrs and still has much more to go. Check it out if you're interested.


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## Todd (May 16, 2010)

No for just at night. They like to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner plus midnight snacks.


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## devinsdad (Mar 31, 2010)

+1^ I have caught many large sharks during the middle of the day.


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## RipinLips (Jan 13, 2012)

There is obviously a ton of interest in this subject, and as a fisherman new to sharking, I wish someone would hold a mini-seminar on the beach. Maybe someone from this string of post would like to share their knowledge in a demonstration?


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## devinsdad (Mar 31, 2010)

Good idea RipinLips. Our group has had some really good luck shark fishing with BeerItSelf & CallMeQuiq- Perhaps we could set something up before it gets too cold. We certainly are not experts and there are others who's knowledge may exceed our, but we certainly have the basics down. 

We have all three noticed the attention Land-Based-Shark-Fishing has become recently and think this is awesome. Let me talk to them and see if they would like to have a group meet one day and go over the basics.


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## J.Sharit (Oct 3, 2007)

go to the social groups section under the user CP in the top left corner of the page theres already a group of local sharkfishermen in a club there hit the request to join and it'll get approved in a day or so alot of local sharkfishermen and a decent group of guys who don't mind answering questions or taking a new guy out and showin him the ropes if hes truly in terested....check it out LBSF


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## Breeze (Mar 23, 2012)

I just submitted my request to join. Went out with Devinsdad saturday night but didnt land anything. Only fish that got caught that night was a catfish I caught on my pier rod.... Hoping to go again soon to see how its done. Course now that I am getting the shark bug, going to have to get some different rods and reels.... my pier rods are not going to be up to a shark.....


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## RipinLips (Jan 13, 2012)

I have been out solo probably 10 times this summer where I was baited up for shark. I have had one bite and that day the surf was so rough that I did not even know it until I brough in my lady fish and she had a horse shoe shaped bite out or her. I too am under educated and equipt for much of a shark. I like to think I am giving them a sporting chance, when in reality I am probably just waiting to be spooled! I am eager to learn, and anxious to try.


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## Randall2point0 (Feb 11, 2011)

If there is a seminar for land based sharkin the most qualified instructor would be Ernie Polk.


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## Toothy Critter (Sep 20, 2012)

*fort pickens*

To you and all the sharkers I will be down the [email protected] of Oct. and would enjoy the company. No, I am not local, but do know just a little bit about sharkin. We will be at Fort Pickens near the pass around 8 a.m. the 13th through that Sunday night. I will have my yak, so just show up and we will be happy to hook you up.


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## Randall2point0 (Feb 11, 2011)

Hey Chris V, can you post pictures of your taped spider weights, how long does the tape stay on?


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