We lost 3 nice sharks-THE WHY AND THE SOLUTION

Sounds like you're ready to stick them next time..I knew this warmer weather would mean some shark encounters! Can't wait til it starts picking up over here with the bigger fish, smaller wintertime fish are biting very well I think thats a good sign.

Good tips

IT may sound stupied but smaller hooks and smaller wire. It will increase your hooks ups .But if you hook that big hammer # 15 WIRE IS GOOD FOR ABOUT ONE HOUR AND THEN IT WILL BREAK. Your damned if you do and damned if you dont.

I used #15 for a while, until a nurse kinked it and the wire broke while we were leadering it. Lost my confidence in it.

Will here on the Northern Gulf coast we go the other way on winter fishing. Bigger baits
using a Mundas type rig with larger J hooks. I just cant seem to get the hang of using circles I LIKE TO JACK THEM JAWS!!!! We drop down in bait size and hook size in the summer cause we have so many bulls and tips close to the beach.

IT may sound stupied but smaller hooks and smaller wire. It will increase your hooks ups .But if you hook that big hammer # 15 WIRE IS GOOD FOR ABOUT ONE HOUR AND THEN IT WILL BREAK. Your damned if you do and damned if you dont.

i agree with hammer 100% when i useto use # 15 wire i would get alot of hits now i only get the big hits

Good tips Will you will get them next time

Definately going to try to remember sharpening hooks before every trip now! This winter will be the winter of the fillets.

I try to sharpen my hooks after I run them through the bait...IF I remember and am not in a hurry.

Personally i prefer 20/0 Mustad circle hooks - the fish fights harder when successfully hooked since they don't feel any pain being usually hooked on the side of the mouth.
If i remember well, in January, when i just start fishing for sharks, on a very light rig and tackle "we" successfully land an over 9ft hammerhead on a 4/0 - 2 hour fight. That was one of the sharks that toked 4-5minutes to hook it successfully while going back and forth, several times, hooking and unhooking the fish all this time on a 16/0 circle hook 137lb wire. The hook and about two feet wire were taped with electrical tape.
I found out in a hard way, while in BHC tournament, that thick cable doesn't give good bite rate - worse - using heavy cable triggered for me one maybe two test bites and broken mono line that kept the bait connected to the weight rock, which later resulted for the bait being washed inshore. I used 900lb cable double up at the hook about 1,800lb. I learned from my mistake and i wouldn't spend my money to do something like that again.
I know some of you may not consider this as an option, but i would just tape with electrical tape the hook and continuing up to about two feet on the #19 wire leader. That should make the shark to return and pick up the bait again after dropping that bait.

To avoid forgetting to sharpen hooks, I use Owner Jobu Big Game 11/0s. They are just as wide as a mustad 14/0 due to their unique shape, plus they are trangle tipped, 4x strong and welded eye. They stay razor sharp after multiple uses. I agree with using lighter leader as well. I use exclusively black coated 7x7 galvanized in 480#. But lately ive used the same stuff in 960# for my monster baits. Well my hits have dropped drastically by going with the heavier stuff. Also, some of my buddies use singlestrand and some use straight aircraft noncoated cable and I ALWAYS have more hits and catch more sharks. The monster wont care but those 6-9fters can be choosey.

A friend of mine once fought a fairly good sized bull (8') for about 45 minutes off the Skyway bridge. Back in those days we used to shoot the sharks when we got them up alongside of the bridge. Used to even wear a pistol on my belt while fishing. I'm so old they hadn't invented carry permits yet. I digress. When he got the shark up close to the bridge, I shot it with a 38 spl. Later learned that a 12 Gauge with slugs was much better. The first shot didn't do much so I shot him a second time. After the second shot hit, the bull simply opened his mouth and let the bait go. He was never hooked.

Over the years I've lost many sharks after a few minutes or after lenghty fights when the "hooks pulled out." I have had more than a few ocassions, when setting the hook, that I didn't hook the shark at all. My youngest son once asked me how long to let a shark run before you set the hook - since he had missed several hookups. I told him when he got that figured out to let me know.

Here's my take on the situtation. The Mote Marine Lab used to have an instrument that consisted of an aluminum bar and two aluminum u shapped sheaths that fit around the bar. They put steel ball bearings between the bar and the sheaths, wrapped it together, secured it with a steel cable, and stuck the whole thing inside of a fish. This thing, with it's fancy name that was called, a something or other meter, was thrown in the tank and a shark would bite down on it. It was then removed, seperated and a micrometer was used to measure the penatration of the steel ball bearings into the softer aluminum. The shark's bite was then computed on that basis. Whereas a dogs bite is measured in pounds per square inch. The sharks bite was in tons per square inch.

Stick with me here for a second. Imagine putting your leader in a press and setting it for several tons of pressure. Now, picture your hooks on one side and your rod and reel on the other. Jerk or do the running man. What happened to your hooks on the other side of the press?

When a shark clamps down on your leader you may not be doing much when you set the hooks. That's my theory and that's why I set the hook several times in succession and hope that at some point in the process the shark may slack off on his bite.
Just an idea that may explain how hooks"pull". Maybe like my friends bull, the shark was never hooked to begin with and was just too mean to let go of the bait.

What do you think?

With circle hooks the only think that i have to do is to engage the drag, then hold the grounds firmly. The hook gets well on the side of the jaws with no chance for the shark to bite the wire leader while pulling drag. When J hooks are used, the hook gets inside the belly stays hooked inside while the wire travels through the jaws section where the chopping happens, then the wire/cable fails under extended fight and tension. This is why using lighter wire leader works the best with circles rather then using J hooks. Sharks can't chop the wire while the hook is in the jaws outside, although the wire should be long enough to reduce the risk of the mono leader from failing by continuously touching the shark's skin. In BHC we always had problems removing circle hooks - they get so well hooked in the jaws that got us, most of the time, to the point of cutting the wire/cable leader to release sharks. A 20/0 Mustad circle hook have a much much bigger barb then a J shape one within the same category size. When fishing with J hooks there is usually that need to jerk the rod or do the run thing to properly hook the shark, but doing that with a circle hook, would sometimes unhook the fish. Also, by hooking the shark in the same way on a circle hook like a J hook would give, most of the time, frustration - because the fish gets unhooked when attempting to hook it. I've read many posts all over the net were people complain about using circle hooks, this is usually because they can't hook properly the fish, and again - this happens because of misconception between using circles vs J hook. I learn this awhile ago, when someone tries for the first time to fish with circles - if they don't feel to get better result quickly- they'll just gonna go right back to J hooks and never look back. Some get better results on J's, i personally feel that i do better on circles - its all basically relevant to your style of fishing.

I switched back to circle hooks on my bigger rigs simply because some beaches I fish do not allow me enough room to do the runnin' man, and also I cannot afford $4.00 J hooks since I cut quite a few of my hooks out if I can't get it easily so I can just get the fish back in the water. A little lip piercing ain't gonna bother em as much as being out of the water too long. But no matter what hook you use it is very important to keep them extremely sharp..I use a double cut bastard mill file and get the points to where they are so sharp it hurts my eyes to look at em..I even file the hook down past the barb for better penetration and I recently started crushing the barb down some so hopefully this will make it easier to dehook the sharks. Nothing makes me happier than a sharp, well exposed hook set up in a big bloody bait. I rarely miss a hookup.