xtopdawg386x

Captainblack has given you a lot of very good advice !

I have been shark fishing this area for years like you i started off with gear i all ready had for freshwater fishing bait caster and a couple open face's holding around 250 yrds of 20 lb mono . Well shortly after this i found i had the wrong equipment ! You can go online to Google and look up a penn pursuit 8000 I bought 3 of them about a month ago around 65 bucks a piece rod and reel rods a 10 ft penn surf rod holds 500 yrds of 50 lb braid with backing . So far these rods have landed black tips a 6 ft hammer head and 3 bull sharks ranging from 4.5 - 8 ft . I had a lot of reels b4 i found these but the price was right so i got them to add to my other shark rods . If you wanting to go from the beach and have a yak you can look into getting a penn 6/0 and filling it with braid will handle pretty much what ever you want while staying around 200 $ for reel and rod . Cancel one or to trips save your money and buy the right equipment you will have a lot more fun once you get right equipment . It took me a few years to get every thing i have like it will probably take you .

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devinsdad

All very good tips but one thing someone pointed out that makes a huge difference: Wrap your hook down to the barb in electrical tape.

J.Sharit

If you really want to learn the sport from the bottom up go to
www.southfloridasharkclub.com Great bunch of dedicated shark
fishermen and the forum contains tons of good usable info on
the subject. I've been sharkfishing this area for 30 plus years
and the only way to really catch a large costal shark is with the right gear. I would'nt use a leader with 4 stess points and a mono shocker that stretches like crazy and takes alot of punch oputa settin a hook. a single coated wire leader about 12 to 15 ft long has been the standard for years. If your just using spinning reels
and surf casting then I guess anything will do because the size of the sharks won't be a strain on most gear. Most of those phantom hits
that end up losing your gear are caused by blue fish or other toothy critters that see your line light up from noctoluca plankton. Shark fishing is experincing a rebirth in popularity. We all need to do our part to keep it from slipping back into disfavor of the public eye before it's banned completely from our beaches. that means cleaning up after ourselves
not leaving dead carcus on the beach and doing all we can to promote catch and release of the species. Killing a shark just for the jaws or for
spite is no better than killing it for fins to make soup......... and with thier low reproduction rate
it might not be a sport for our kids.

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TEAM KANE MANO
www.southfloridasharkclub.com

xtopdawg386x

Yes that is a very good tip that most people don't know about how ever something should be learned on your own thats why i did not mention it . But i guess its not much of a secret or trick any more . LoL


+1 for j sharit

I have noticed around destin pass some one or a few people have been leaving trash and leader material ect. on the gulf side of the jetties . The stuff left behind had to be from a shark fisherman from what i could see . I ended up picking it up along with my trash . I usually pull all my stuff out to the jetties with my yak and toss all the trash in the bottom of this but if your not yaking your bait out every one should be able to take a bucket or small wallmart bag with them to clean there trash up . If you did not put the trash there but you see trash there pick it up and throw it away it does not take much effort . There people watching you even if you don't see them , mostly people in condo's that report people leaving trash on the beach and its coming on to there property don't give them any more ammo to close more section of beach to the public or make it were we cant fish from the beach's . Plus your only hurting your own lively hood when your doing this since alot of income for people around here is from tourist if our beach's our looking like a garbage dump people will go other places to vacation which will hurt this area in the long run .

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bleachcola

Instead of electrical tape, I switched to Plasti Dip. I pick it up at Lowe's right next to the spray paint. Dip and dry and done. Much smoother and quicker and prettier than electrical tape. But be sure to bring electrical tape to do some patchwork after you land a shark.

bleachcola

And don't invest too much in a long rod. Once you get a proper reel and a way to deploy baits (kayak et cetera) then you need to switch to a shorter rod in the six foot range. Longer rods give the fish leverage.

bleachcola

For rays, I go to the residential docks on the Gulf Breeze side of the Bay. You can throw out cut bait or minnows on a line or just gig 'em like I do. Makes the best free bait. They're not very big but they are ridiculously plentiful and get the job done. It's a guaranteed catch every trip rather than chancing it in the surf on the proper beach.