# Blacktip sharks



## kayakfisher33 (Feb 7, 2012)

Have been fishing pretty hard the past few days from the beach in the ocean and bay. Caught a nice whiting in the gulf last night and cut off his head and threw a cast out with my spinning gear. Knew it wouldn't be long and soon enough the drag starts singing. The shark didn't jump or anything so I wasn't sure what I had at first. Got my phone as I was fighting the shark and called my dad to come down from the condo and help out. He ripped off about 150 yards of line and then he came to the shore pretty quick. Got him right next to the beach but took about 10 minutes to finally throw him onto the sand. Tail ropped him and cut the wire (hook was perfectly in the corner of mouth. Ended up being a 5 foot blacktip. Went out again tonight and caught a catfish and cut it into a chunk. Casted from the bank and shortly had a blacktip/spinner shark on. After a few jumps he broke me off on my shock leader. Sent another catfish out and set the drag reel lose. Hooked another one shortly after losing the first and he jumped about 10 times. Thought I had lost him a few times and he was jumping right next to the beach. Got some people sitting in lawn chairs to grab my stuff and help me out. After 15 minutes they got tired and decided to leave. Of course two minutes later I had the shark halfway on the beach. Had him tail ropped twice but couldn't tighten the rope before the next wave. Lost my tail rope in the process and ended up dragging the blacktip up into the sand. It ended up being about 5 feet too. Caught him perfectly in the corner and cut the wire right next to the hook. Rushed him back out into water and couldn't tell if he needed to be revived. Held him into the waves for 15 seconds and let go and it looked like he was swimming out to sea slowly. It was hard to tell with the waves. I walked the shore for 5 minutes and didn't see anything so hopefully it was fine.


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## GROUPERKING (Sep 28, 2011)

Sounds like you're having plenty of action. Way to go !


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## Justin618 (Aug 18, 2013)

Good stuff. Those sharks are fun on spinning tackle. If you get a 3-4ft I'll take it for bait lol


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## Randall2point0 (Feb 11, 2011)

Wirelessly posted

Lowes sells small hand sized bolt cutters that should be able to cut the shank on the hook. I use them for cutting large single strand wire. Are you the same guy I talked to Thursday night on the beach? Good job on the sharks! You fishing tonight?


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## kayakfisher33 (Feb 7, 2012)

Yeah if your name is David then yes. Did you end up catching anything? I was fishing in that deep cut near where you were and caught both at night. I got broken off on one and set the drag reel loose on the last one and it seemed to work on all the jumps. Then tightened down the drag for the fight. The other shark didn't even jump I believe and took off for Cuba. I hate handling the blacktips without any help and the rough surf didn't help. Ended up seeing 3 sea turtles there during the day. They were very small anybody know what kind they are?


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## kayakfisher33 (Feb 7, 2012)

I had bolt cutters and would cut the single strand wire near the hook. I always have trouble getting circle hooks out of sharks. It's much more important to get them back in the water quickly and I'm sure a little 8/0 9/0 hook will not bother them. If humans wear mouth rings a shark sure won't mind


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## Randall2point0 (Feb 11, 2011)

Wirelessly posted

Yeah that's me. And I had no runs, at one time the current picked up a little and made the 12/0 click a little bit but other than that it was uneventful. I needed up packing up around 9 something. Was thinking about going tonight but looks like the rain has set in.


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## kayakfisher33 (Feb 7, 2012)

It was rough yesterday. Went to Pickens and stayed for five minutes because the waves were 6 feet high at the first parking lot. Ended up back where we were because it was the calmest area around. The waves made the shark hard to land because it kept rolling with each new wave and couldn't ever have enough time to tail rope it. Hopefully it was fine was only a 25 minute fight with no strong runs and once on dry sand I took a few terrible pictures, cut the line, and sent him back a minute later. We left early this morning. I come down a fair amount, if you ever need someone to go with. I wanna come down sometime in December and try hooking a sandbar on spinning gear


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## Northernhunter (Sep 28, 2014)

I will be down all next week. Bringing some new spinning gear to try out. hopefully the bite is on. Would like to put a few new reels through their paces and get the wife on her first decent sized shark. The report is much appreciated, this is the first time I have gone down there this late in the year.


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## kayakfisher33 (Feb 7, 2012)

Bite wasn't very good during the day but I was mainly fishing for sharks. The guy next to me caught a couple of pompano on sand fleas. For the sharks I would setup at dark and toss in some shrimp and catch a few catfish. Cut the catfish and use a big chunk of the meaty middle. The sharks aren't very far out so you can cast from shore and catch them. Remember to keep a loose drag with the blacktips/spinners until they stop jumping because it puts added stress on knots and hooks swivels, etc


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