Catch and Release Shark Fishing from the Beach.
You’re setup on the beach with your brand new shark gear and you just caught and rigged up the best shark bait you could find. You waded out and casted your bait in the perfect location and got back to dry land and set your pole in the rod holder. Surely you remembered to loosen you drag all the way so your pole isn’t pulled in the water when that 6 foot blacktip cruises by your shark bait.
Now it’s time to do what fisherman do best. You wait. And you wait. Then in an instant your pole will double over or your clicker will start singing. In that instant you’ll be hit with an adrenaline rush like none other. It’s time to do battle with the biggest and baddest predator the oceans will ever see.
Get to your pole ASAP. At this point the shark has just picked up the bait and is off to devour his freshly plucked meal. From the time you hear that clicker you need to start counting. When you get to 10 it’s time to set the hook. As fast as you can start loading up the drag to a predetermined drag setting. Make sure you reel in all the slack and then set the hook as hard as you can. Now the shark is going to start peeling some major drag. Keep your eyes on the water because if you’ve hooked a blacktip, spinner, or mako shark you may see him jump out of the water. As he’s peeling drag don’t try to stop him. Let him wear himself out. Your goal at this point is to keep the line as tight as possible. If he turns and swims back towards the beach you’ve got to reel in that slack as fast as possible. It may also help to run up the beach to get that slack line tight again.
Eventually you’ll start gaining line back. Then you’ll see your 100lb leader surface. At this point you’ll want to have a friend handy to hold your pole or be the daring one and grab the shark by his tail. You’ll want him to be in less than knee deep water before trying to pull him by his tail onto the beach. You need to have a pair of 16″ channel lock pliers handy in order to retrieve the hook. Pull the shark by the tail onto the sand. You’ll need to work quick so no permanent damage is done to the shark. If you can’t get the hook out in a couple of tries cut the leader and leave the hook behind. The hook will rust out of his mouth in a couple of days and he’ll be perfectly fine.
Snap a couple of pictures and pull him back in the water. You’re going to need to walk him out quite a ways (knee deep water) and get the water flowing over his gills again. If he is unresponsive keep pulling him back and forth in the water. You’ll know when it’s time to let him swim free.
Holy Sizzling Sharks! Now that’s daring! Oh, yeah, and truly, “not so boring!” Where do you catch these bad boys? Is it any time of year?
poor sharks, shame on you!!!
u have no idea what are you doing! better try something to rescue sharks from their miserable situation!
jimmy
What their doing is enjoying God’s creations!! Sharks are the bad boys of the ocean, they can take a little hook in the mouth, it’s not gonna hurt them, turn off your Disney films and learn that some of the most conservation savvy people on the planet are your hunters, and fishermen. That is because they are out in the field and they know about the species, and habitat and what the animals can take. It’s the people that spend their life curled up on the sofa watching TV that don’t really have a clue what’s going on!!:shock:
I’m a huge animal lover, I’ve never been hunting but I know quite a few hunters, and they have some of the most utmost respect for the game they hunt. Same goes for sharks, I’m just starting to get into shark fishing (been a fisherman my whole life), and as long as your educated about what you’re doing you can do little damage to the shark, and have an amazing experience. Don’t knock it until you try it!!
Keep up the great work on the site I’m loving all the advice and pictures!!
Hey, I like your message that you wrote. SO VERY TRUE!!! I have also been fishing my whole life but just began shark fishing with my children at Hilton Head last summer. We had a blast!!! Matters of fact, I didn’t find Hilton Head to be such a kid oriented place. So we thought we would buy some surf casters and see what we could catch. Man, BEST IDEA WE CAME UP WITH THAT WEEK!!! All we did was catch sharks and my kids loved it. Matters of fact, that is all we ended up doing all week!!LOL We are going back this year (6/28/08-7/05/08) and, long story short, I have the whole family interested in doing it.
With that being said, what would be the best places to go?? what time?? What kind of gear and where to get it?? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Have fun and always take a kid fishing!!
Jeff
PS- Shoot me back at jwhitecsx@aol.com with your response. Thanks again and happy fishing!!!
Very nice info!
I was at the bait store and asked whats the difference between spanish sardines and thread herring.
Guy said the 6 to 7 inch thin spanish sardines had lots of oil and blood.
said Id have problems with sharks.
To my delight I bought about 5 pounds worth.
their were alot.
cost about 16 bucks.
I have a spot next to a bridge on the rocks, i go to the base of teh rocks inches off the water.
Iset up my sardines threw them in, then put my huge penn reel and rod in a hole in th erock with the spinner rather loose for when I get hit.
Im barely putting in the rod in the hole, when th ething starts screaming!
whizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!
im thinking oh man!!!!!!!!! I start reeling, and bam! my 60 lb test wa sbitten through.
Im learning as I go.
2 feet of wire leader is not enogh.
Its safe to assume a shark ate the whole leader and bit my line.
Im positive I wasnt stuck on the rocks.
im in miami I go down to islamorada, were the tarpon are just as tough.
Which later ontaht day on fathers day, I caught my first huge tarpon.
well in that same spot were they clean th efish at the end of the pier, a 6 foot nurse shark practically wanted to crawl out of teh water.
I could have jumped on it and bull rode it.
next time I plan on using the tie method for my bait, which is a huge pain in my ass. and a very long leader wellgotta go!
thanks for the useful info!!!
“If you can’t get the hook out in a couple of tries cut the leader and leave the hook behind. The hook will rust out of his mouth in a couple of days and he’ll be perfectly fine.”
this is process actually takes quite long around 7-8 months maybe even longer and can cause the shark to have problems feeding which can change his diet drastically maybe even being fatal..
great site though lots of info…..:)
In addition to your comment, some success I’ve had is with using heavy wire cutters to cut the hook in half, then just slip the other end out of the mouth opposite of the barb. To do this safely, you need long needle-nose pliers to keep your hands away from its mouth.
Also, I’ve never had a problem pulling a circle hook out. All you have to do is crimp the barb of the hook (the inner curve of the hook serves well enough as its own barb) and then it slips right out. I’ve had no problems catching four-five foot sharks with these arrangements.
That is some great info, I just got my first experance with shark fishing on 09/11/07 while my wife and I were on vacation at N. Myrtle Beach, S.C. I surf fish while she lays in the sun , To my suprise I caught a 4′ Hammerhead (What a fight) I just get to do it once a year but I can see where this is a great sport. Thanks for the info GREAT JOB !!!!
Great info!! I went surf fishing for sharks in Dec 07 just north of Cocoa Beach. Unfortunately it was before I read this article. I had no leader. Very light tackle. Med action spinning rod with 30lb mono. 5/0 circle hooks with dead finger mullet. I got lucky and landed a 40″ black tip hooked perfectly on the side. However, I lost 4 rigs during the outing. I took 2 of my kids and we all had a blast. Our next trip will be more successful thanks to your info. I will keep you posted. Thanks again.
Great site! A lot of information.
I personally am a great fan of catch and release. If we want our children to have the same fun in shark fishing as we, we should not kill these beautiful animals that are on top of the food chain.
One small thing about the text, quote:
”You’re going to need to walk him out quite a ways (knee deep water) and get the water flowing over his gills again. If he is unresponsive, keep pulling him back and forth in the water.”
Pulling a shark back and forth in the water might drown him. Fresh water needs to flow from mouth trough the gills –>. My advice is to only push him forwards for as long as necessary, don’t pull him backwards.
Thanks for the nice site, good luck with the next catch!
Here are some good videos on how to release a shark safely:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=lrLZxoPQVPA
http://youtube.com/watch?v=jjxBZ0NzPMo
Email me if you have any questions, Blacktip_hunter@hotmail.com
hey dude….
We fish the shores of Carolina Beach N.C here and catch some very large black tips and even a few large tigers here The biggest so far has been about 350lbs and thats on spinning tackle and small conventional reels the sharks are here have fun good luck with the sharks!!!!!!!!
Greg the sharkman!!!!
thanks a bunch… me and my dad go shark fishing quite often and will be back out on the water in a few days… we have caught a 200 pound 8 foot bull shark….6 foot dusky…….. and a four foot bonnet head.. we also caught a few large blacktips all in Hilton Head SC!!!!! I recommend hilton head in the fall. it is like the shark capital, we went regular fishing for a change and still caught mostly sharks.
FINS UP!!!!!!
Dude cummon,is that all your’ll have in USA,
Here in SA we’ve got monsters,im talking about 150 kilograms+much bigger rods and we all use penn reels,but we gota throw much further than that,thats the only down fall,south africans are holding the records for largest BLACKFIN and BRONZE WHALERS and BRONZE HAMMER HEAD SHARKS 
WHO CARES IF THE SHARK IS KILLED,,,,THE LESS SHARKS IN THE WATER THE BETTER
yea man great info but i was fishing in myrtle beach and caught a nice size croaker and cut it in half and threw it out there and about 5 minutes whammmmmmm my pole was whizzzing drag and i set oh man a 7 foot hammer head man almost broke my marlin pole fougght so hard .. nice info . i thinnk this will help me alot
I got started in surf fishing for sharks some time ago. After many unsucessful attempts (just feeding fish) I finally got some good info and got on the right track. Alot of the info I received from an old pro is the same as above. I have had a lot of success with using cut mullet in the Savannah and Charleston areas. I’ve caught all sizes with my personal record coming in between 6 and 7 feet. I choose to cast my bait from the beach and agree that having some sort of structure is key. I’ve moved inland now but last year on my vacation I hooked a shark that was around 8′ (by estimate). He came out of the water and I at least got a look. He straightened the small hook I was using then waived good bye. I am leaving in a couple days for the same vacation and will be much more prepared this time. This is a great website and is very informative. Tight Lines!!