Jetty fishing bait deployment -The useful garbage bag

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.

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.