Hi my name is stuart and i live in england. I come over to sanibel each year and fish for the large sharks off the beach close to the sundial condos, i have had success and fails with bulls, lemons blacktips and nurse sharks. I catch mullet at night with a cast net in a small gully and have found that a chunk gets more takes than a whole one. I have not used a kayak yet but will do this year, all my sharks have been caught by throwing my bait in by hand, many times i have seen massive lemons in so close there backs are right out of the water,i actually had the biggest one i've hooked 2 feet from waters edge 450 yards of line gone in no time i locked down and pulled the hook. Penn 14/0 this year loaded with 150lb grand slam mono right through i have been cut off a few times by the sand bars,there are two before the beach slops off gently. My main question is that i see sharks in the shallows turn and go right up to my bait agian and again only to circle then go off. Am i right in saying some of these sharks are resident and seem to be educated with fishing wire, I have scaled down to a short wire trace about 150lb the solid thin wire [forgot name] and 500lb mono leader i tried small 6/0 hooks but these got straightened . These sharks are all in very close so come into contact with fishing gear all the time, maybe a kayaked bait would put me in reach of sharks that don't see fishing gear.? I am 100 per cent sure i would catch a lot more but they can sense the metal, has any one tried using very strong mono with circle hooks, and lifting into the fish straight away? I would gladly accept any advice, some nights i have seen half a dozen different sharks and only get one pick up,and some nights i see nothing and catch nothing.
You can wrap your wire in electric tape which some believe will give you more hits. As far as using mono, you will only be disappointed.
Try coated wire or wrap your leaders (and the hook up to the barb) with electrical tape.
Hello Suart
Is your brother in law Max?
If so, sorry I have not been able to get back to you. Dropped my phone in the surf.
My advice is that sharks are fickle. One day they bit, the next they don't. Biggest shark I ever hooked was 50 yards from the beach.
Hello
No i am not related to max, but i will be fishing sanibel from 1/8/14 to 16/8/14 I will try coating my hooks with tape and see if i can land a big lemon.
Thanks for comments
Stuart
I think some sharks are educated. I had a large shark take three bites out of my stingray with three hooks. Two around the edges and one in the center. I was amazed it missed the hooks. But another train of thought is that sometimes Sharks are picky about the baits they eat and when they eat them. Once they know a bait is there and if they pass it up, they will come back for them later. My thoughts are if a shark is hungry and the bait you have is what they are hungry for they will eat it no matter if there is cable, wire or chain. I have seen first hand many a sharks pick up on all three. Good luck with your next trip.
x2 on the coated wire! Malin makes some Nylon coated wire I always have issues finding it though I recomend ordering it before you come finding it in store is problematic. You can order direct from them but they do have a minimum order last time I checked it was a $125. #18 nylon coated 1/4lb spool was $12.88 plus shipping. Their lead time changes too it was 3 week last time I checked. Also teeth cut though the coating so i'd make the leader longer than normal and then cut and retwist once the coating gets tore up too bad. Email jhauck@malinco.com if he still works there he'll help you out!