When fishing from a pier or bridge most of the time you need to float your bait out to get it away from the structure you are on and into a channel or deeper water.One of the most effective and quick ways to do this is by using either an empty water bottle or a balloon tied to your rig with a piece of sewing string.
On a pier baits can be easily floated out on a water bottle or balloon
And just as easily on a bridge.Luis Iglesias getting his 16/0 toasted by a big Hammerhead at the Long Key bridge
You can tie your sewing string to the eye of your primary hook or if you want your bait to float deeper as the current takes it out you can tie your sewing string to the swivel at the top of your wire or cable rig.
The size of the bait you are using and the size of the waves will determine whether
you can use a single strand of sewing thread or double .
During the winter months when the surf is treacherous and fishing a beach is out of the question many times you may choose to fish a pier or bridge where you can toss out a bait or opt to float it out in the current much further then you can toss it or allow the waves to carry the bait to where you want it .This technique is used mostly when using dead bait so that you can control where the bait is going in the current and stop it when it has gotten to your desired spot .The next step is to reel in all your slack and set up with your rod a few times to break the sewing thread and allow your bait to sink to the bottom.
A fresh chunk of jack crevalle is an excellent choice of bait and a balloon to float it out into the current.
the bait floats out and away towards the channel
Some shark fisherman like to leave the bait on the balloon throughout the entire tide where the bait is closer to the surface, I personally like to float it to the spot and leave it on top for an hour or two and then as the tide starts to slow down i pop it off and allow it to sink therby covering both the top and the bottom of the water column with the bloody scent of a fresh bait.Hook a hammer on top or a big bull on bottom-it's not written in stone but sometimes it really works that way depending on time of the year and where you are fishing.If you choose to leave it on top you must remember that once the tide changes (every 6 hours or so )the bait will float in the opposite direction you let it go out .On the bridges if you fall asleep and forget to move your rod to the opposite side when the current changes you will have the bait under the bridge and out the other side.Many times you wake up with a big hit that is ripping your line under you and rubbing on the concrete PING!!!!Gone!!!You might want to set an alarm clock,not sleep or wake up often to check the tide and your bait.
Jd prepares to drop his bait
In the daytime Jimbo(Jd) has a preference for leaving his bait right on top of the water
Like a good bird dog he'll sit and wait and many times see a shark swimming homing in on his bait , in the clear Florida keys water
You also have to remember to adjust the length of the sewing string according to the depth of the water ,the strength of the current ,and the weight of the bait you are using.If you choose to float out a large bait you will surely need to double your sewing thread or switch to thin mono. If you want to use this technique with a large live bait like a big jack or a barracuda you may want to use light mono (8-12 lb test)so that your active big bait does not part the sewing thread before it has reached the distance you desire.
drop your bait gently to the water so that you don't break the thread
When fishing big live baits in a crowd you have to stay on top of where your live bait is going in order to not tangle everyone else's line.No quicker way to be called a Googan or get into an arguement then by allowing your big live bait to create a mess on a crowded pier or bridge.When a shark ambushes your bait your mono will quickly break and your clicker will start a screaming.
A big hammer caught from the Long Key bridge with a floated out bait.Eddie Grosso (1992) incorporates the help of a nearby boater to capture the 12 foot T-head and bull shark stuck on a lobster trap from the night before.
Another trick for night time fishing is to use a glow stick inside a dry water bottle.Same technique applies with the advantage that the glow stick (cyalume)will make it easy to keep an eye on where your bait is at all times.Sometimes the wind will shift in the middle of the night and send your bait close to a lobster pot bouy ,into the flats ,or into your buddies line and with the glow stick in the bottle you will see exactly where the wind has shifted your bait.When using the water bottle with the glowstick inside we usually tie the bait using light monofilament line so that it last the entire tide.If you use sewing thread it will sometimes break and that defeats the purpose of using a glow stick.When using the glowstick I like to hang my bait mid-water which is usually 4-6 feet under the surface.
Rene de Dios and James Fuqua(Jd) pioneered some of the techniques that we in the shark club still use today.One of these is the use of a soda can to float out a bait .When you don't have balloons or can't find an empty water bottle to float out your bait one or two cans tied to the snap top of the can will work perfectly with sewing string or light mono.What happens is that when your bait is dropped into the water it's weight pulls the soda cans upside down and they hold air and float for a long time.After a long while if the current is swift the cans will be pushed almost sideways and they slowly fill with water and now your bait goes to the bottom so you have covered both top and bottom.Simple and effective.I wish i can knew the exact number of sharks that Rene and Jd have caught throughout the years.Rene was a mizer when it came to buying balloons you could forget him buying them when there were so many soda cans in the garbage can.
Rene on Long Key bridge (1999)
Rene doing what few dared attempt -going down a rope to untangle a big shark tangled in the pilings
Rene with a seven mile bridge caught bull shark
Rene with a small tiger at the old South Beach pier (1979)
Rene and Jd with a Naples pier caught 345 lb Jewfish(1977)
Rene and Eddie Grosso with a bridge caught bull shark (1991)
JETTY SHARK FISHING -BAIT DEPLOYMENT
Fishing from a jetty can sometimes be the best way to target the biggest, baddest bull sharks around.Certain times of the year the bull sharks are actively coming in and out of inlets to mate and lay there pups up intracoastal waterways,estuaries and even in the brackish water rivers. When fishing from a bridge is impossible or not Legal we find other ways of targetting the very strong fighting bull sharks that frequent the inlets. The typical household garbage bag can be used with great success in different ways by the land-based shark fisherman.Most of the time when fishing from a jetty you will depend on the tide to get your bait out to deeper water where the hungry sharks are awaiting a free morsel drifting out in the current.In some places jetty fishing for sharks is done fishing the OUTSIDE portion of a particular concrete or rock jetty by deploying a bait with a kayak or by casting but in this instance we are describing bait deployment through the center of the inlet using the CURRENT to get the bait to your desired spot be it on the bay side of an inlet or the ocean side of an inlet.During the early seventies we learned the garbage bag trick by watching the old timers on the Naples fishing pier(when the strong east winds blew) float there baits out away from the pier by using an inflated garbage bag as a sail to catch the wind & get baits into deeper water.We incorporated this technique to suit our Florida east coast style of shark fishing.On Florida's east coast most of the time we have easterly winds that blow into us while on the shore so the garbage bag as a way to get our baits out from a beach is almost always impossible but we have found other ways to use the garbage bag trick and the primary one is to float a bait out in an outgoing jetty current.
The way we use the garbage bag is by inserting the hook through the edge of the garbage bag about 1/2 an inch to 1 1/2 inches distance from the bags edge depending on how heavy the bait you are using and how long you intend to have the plastic bag hold up your bait-the bigger the bait the deeper you have to hook the bag.You drift your bait to the desired location in with your reel in free spool and when you want your bait to sink you put your reel in gear and wind until you see or feel the bag break loose from the hook.You will the bait sink and the pull on your line from the current will immidediately lessen.Sometimes you have to do this several times before the bag rips off.You will know your bag is still on if your line continues to pay out or curve around the end of the jetty.It is recommended that you use atleast a 4 or 5 pound bait so that it will have enough wait to sink to the bottom once it's seperated from the bag.
This method is most effective when you can start by drifting your bait down the center of the inlet(deepest part) and usually the only way to do that is when there is a bridge that crosses from one side of an inlet to the other and you can walk out to the center of the bridge and carefully lower your bait into the channel when there are no boats coming that can entangle your line .What we do is have one person in our group on top of the bridge lower a small rope ,we then attach the bait and inflated bag to ,the person on the bridge then lifts it up and walks with the bait to the channel and lowers it into the water.Make sure the line clears any channel bumpers that typically guard the center of each bridge;the person with the rod in there hand must walk out and away from the bridge towards the end of the jetty to avoid the the fishing line from getting tangled on the channel bumper.Also if there are wooden or concrete markers in the channel you must keep your bait away from those or you will lose your expensive shark rig and possibly much yardage from your reel.We use this method only late at night when boat traffic is almost non existent at the inlets.By late we mean 12 midnight to 4 am depending on the time of year and weather conditions.Many times when the waves are crashing over the jetties there will be no boats out and usually no way to fish the jetties either.
Another fisherman not from our group with a Atlantic finetooth shark
There is nothing simple or easy about jetty fishing .There are various obstacles to consider when fishing from a jetty- such as boat traffic,Jetties without rails(dangerous for shark fisherman),getting tangled with other anglers fishing line,wet & slippery concrete,slimy or barnacle encrusted rocks and many times waves breaking on the jetty that make it near impossible to safely measure ,tag and release a thrashing shark. Jetty fishing should approached with MUCH CAUTION.
Jetty fishing can be both difficult and very dangerous but can pay big dividends at the just the right time of the year.Learn when the Big Bulls come thru the inlets in your area,study the jetty you intend to fish and get a strong team together (atleast 3 people) and then go for the monster bulls.Good luck.
SOUTH FLORIDA SHARK CLUB -President SFSC-Founding Member est 1983 SFSC-Website Administrator BIG HAMMER SHARK TOURNAMENT -Founder Rene Memorial Sharkathon -Founder NMFS Shark Tagger
I loved the black and white picture of Rene on Long Key in 1999 & the picture of JD Hammer and Rene with the monster jewfish. Thanks for posting them. 
Will love the info. there are many ways to do things thats just a few ways. but great info for the newcomers.
Thanks
We always floated with plastic garbage bags. It takes an offshore wind and light currents. Air the bag up as full of air as ya can and tie it closed with fishing line. If ya are using the knock off method be care full not to fasten to securley. I hook the hook in one leaf of the bag under the tie string. Carefull not to let it twist on the way down. Dacron line helps when floating long baits due to the stretch when knocking off. When fishing a pier and every one is floating get ready for a tangle. Im shure when on a bridge things work better. I have had nightmare tangles cause to many people were floating but that was on a pier where every one fished at the end. I quit floating off the pier and started paddeling the bait away from the floaters and sit back and laugh while they untangled there cluster f---.
Land Based World Record #5 short fin Mako 700lbs
Team
Land Based World Record #8 Tiger shark 928lbs
True
Land Based World Record #9 Tiger shark 949lbs
Blue
SFSC Panhandle Events Coordinator
Plastic bags can kill sea turtles. They think it is a man-o-war & eat them, keeping them from being able to absorb water or nutrients and they die a slow painful death. For that reason, I cannot advocate the use of plastic bags to float out baits.
Tie a surf rod to the upper corner of the bag and reel it back in. Baits over200yds this way will tangle sometimes.
Land Based World Record #5 short fin Mako 700lbs
Team
Land Based World Record #8 Tiger shark 928lbs
True
Land Based World Record #9 Tiger shark 949lbs
Blue
SFSC Panhandle Events Coordinator
Thanks for the info Will! Goin bridge fishing tomorrow and was clueless as to how I was going to get my bait out deep. Yet another reason why I love this site. Keep it up everyone!
One more quick question, do you guys use any weight when doing this? Or does the weight of the bait just sink itsself after awhile?
hey thats up to youre liking i like to put a five ounce sinker on my bait i like my bait to stay on the bottom but some times theres so much current nothing is going to keep it on the bottom until the current slows down so i hope that helps you a little bit
I personally have doubled my amount of shark hits with hammers method. A bait floated out dosent spread close to the amount of scent as a bait ontop by the bridge were the current rips the hardest in my opinion. alot of times the other guys benefit from hammers style,because they get lucky and have the sharks pick up there baits 100 yards out,when that shark just coincidently bumped into there bait on the way to the scent from hammers bait straight down.
SFSC -East Coast Events Coordinator
Thanks for the comments everyone.Seaweed if the shark is traveling towards the bridge against the current the bait that is out the farthest is the one he will find first.For that reason I like to mix it up by keeping one out far and one close in that way I have all angles covered.
THE FARTHEST BAIT USUALLY GETS THE FIRST HIT
I learned my lesson while fishing with Rene in the Bahamas .I remember I'd be dropping the anchor after getting to our favorite ledge and before I was done tieing off the rope Rene would have his bait ballooned out 100 yards away from the boat.By the time I got my bait in the water his bait would be the farthest .Of course he would get the first hit because his bait was the farthest and the first to be found by the sharks as they swam into the current towards our blood scent put out by our baits and 100 pound ray dangling from the side of the boat as part of our secret chumming technique.
SOUTH FLORIDA SHARK CLUB -President SFSC-Founding Member est 1983 SFSC-Website Administrator BIG HAMMER SHARK TOURNAMENT -Founder Rene Memorial Sharkathon -Founder NMFS Shark Tagger
Thanks for the comments everyone.Seaweed if the shark is traveling towards the bridge against the current the bait that is out the farthest is the one he will find first.For that reason I like to mix it up by keeping one out far and one close in that way I have all angles covered.
THE FARTHEST BAIT USUALLY GETS THE FIRST HIT
I learned my lesson while fishing with Rene in the Bahamas .I remember I'd be dropping the anchor after getting to our favorite ledge and before I was done tieing off the rope Rene would have his bait ballooned out 100 yards away from the boat.By the time I got my bait in the water his bait would be the farthest .Of course he would get the first hit because his bait was the farthest and the first to be found by the sharks as they swam into the current towards our blood scent put out by our baits and 100 pound ray dangling from the side of the boat as part of our secret chumming technique.
i like this when fishing competition style amongst buddies!
i agree with willy, i like to put 1 bait dangling on top and 1 out far,but never too far for me.Another thing i can promise you that is truth, is when you have frozen bait,or a bait that isnt the usual habitat food for those sharks in that area, like using salmon carcasses or blue fish off of 7 miler, you are almost guaranteed 95 percent sure to take the back seat to whom ever has the fresh local bait.
For example i have walked up to long key with 8 west palm guys sharkfishing spread across the whole north side of the bridge. They had there baits way past the light poles,yet they were all using frozen bonitas. I set up in between all of them, and put my fresh cuda head out str8 down, and caught a 400lb bull shark within 15 minutes, leaving all of them in awe.
Fresh bait will get hit before a frozen bait no matter were you put it. a fresh cuda str8 down will get hit before 30 frozen bonitas 200 yards out further, not every time of course, but id say from my 18 years sharkfishing that its a 75 percent chance or better.
SFSC -East Coast Events Coordinator
Great info...not just here but all over this site. I haven't even been through hardly any this site yet, but I've learned so much just from reading stories about the legendary fishermen featured here, and all the great fishermen who post here. Its entrancing reading about some of these people and their stories. I've always been paranoid about taking on big game from the catwalks because of the structure, that sewing thread trick is going to help me. I've never targeted sharks from bridges or piers..I've been a sand/jetty person who either wades out and casts, swims out, or paddles out..never tried floating out, but only certain times can this be done at the beach. But if going alone to the beach, I only fish daylight. Now if I can't drag someone along, I can fish all night from the catwalks. I've only been at this for 1 year..I've done almost 100 percent of my shark fishing during the day due to being fairly new and not too comfortable taking lines out at night yet and I'm actually suprised at the action I've got during the day..I have heard since I was 5 years old they are more active at night, can't wait to find out for myself. Dropping one straight down from the catwalks would make excellent sense too..you'd figure there would be monsters down there lurking, trying to get a snook or tarpon, plus that current really rips strong under the bridges, as mentioned above. Bridges can make currents stronger from what I've heard.
I was told by an FWC officer that you have to have a means to retrieve you bag like a second rod tied to the garbage bag if you are going to float out your bait, or use a "biodegradable balloon" which I have never seen or you will be fined. Can someone clarify the regulations on this for me. Legally what can we do to float out a bait?