Texas surf shark fishing thread

[Man]

August was always one of my favorite months for shark fishing years ago when I was really into it. I caught this 8' long 171# Scalloped Hammerhead at San Luis Pass in August 1988. I didn't know it at the time but it was a State record for few weeks until Billy Sandifer caught a 195# at Padre.

I was fishing a surf tournament and it took first place beating a 7' long 168# Bull.

My favorite bait was live mullet as big as I could get, and I put as many on the hook as I could fit. I usually used several hooks on the last 24" of a 20' long 1/8" steel cable attached to 80# Trilene Big Game mono. I had 13 big mullet on for bait when I caught that Hammerhead...looked like a lost stringer of fish.

Sharks have a great sense of smell, but they have an AMAZING sense of electro-reception. They can sense LIVE bait even when they are upcurrent, unlike the dead bait most fishermen use.

I see something there.....but I'm not taking the bait.

[RattlesnakeDan]

August was always one of my favorite months for shark fishing years ago when I was really into it. I caught this 8' long 171# Scalloped Hammerhead at San Luis Pass in August 1988. I didn't know it at the time but it was a State record for few weeks until Billy Sandifer caught a 195# at Padre.

I was fishing a surf tournament and it took first place beating a 7' long 168# Bull.

My favorite bait was live mullet as big as I could get, and I put as many on the hook as I could fit. I usually used several hooks on the last 24" of a 20' long 1/8" steel cable attached to 80# Trilene Big Game mono. I had 13 big mullet on for bait when I caught that Hammerhead...looked like a lost stringer of fish.

Sharks have a great sense of smell, but they have an AMAZING sense of electro-reception. They can sense LIVE bait even when they are upcurrent, unlike the dead bait most fishermen use.

Hmmm, looks like you had a helper.

[fish4food]

Not shark related but I have a house on Matagorda peninsula that we fish the surf a lot catch a lot of trout
going to try to make it shark fishing someday


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Say Ol Buddy, you wouldn’t happen to have room for 1 more next trip out would you???

[Native Texan]

Hmmm, looks like you had a helper.

Yep, that was my friend's pet coon.

[Montec man]

August is slow unless you're prepared to fish at night and run baits deep. These days I like fishing casted baits mostly, in the Spring and Fall when they're closer to the beach. Sargent and Gorda Mostly

[Killer]

Hammerhead out of Port A

My son was involved in catching this giant hammerhead in port a back in May. 13ft 8” long.

[justletmein]

Not shark related but I have a house on Matagorda peninsula that we fish the surf a lot catch a lot of trout
going to try to make it shark fishing someday


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We're on the big island. I was beating the sharks away from my net bag in the surf constantly 4th of July weekend. They circled me for 2 hours and constantly approached the bag to test it.

[Muzzy100]

I used to tie a stingray 3-5 lb to a life vest swim the bait as far as i could swim then i would drop the bait and signal to shore with a flashlight that the bait was dropped so that they could set the weight and drag on the reel. I would then put the life vest on and swim back to shore . On more than one Passion they would have a 200 + pound bull shark on before i got back to shore.

Not sure I would do that today !!!!!

Brooo no, lol i kayak the bait out about 1000 yds


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[Muzzy100]

August was always one of my favorite months for shark fishing years ago when I was really into it. I caught this 8' long 171# Scalloped Hammerhead at San Luis Pass in August 1988. I didn't know it at the time but it was a State record for few weeks until Billy Sandifer caught a 195# at Padre.



I was fishing a surf tournament and it took first place beating a 7' long 168# Bull.



My favorite bait was live mullet as big as I could get, and I put as many on the hook as I could fit. I usually used several hooks on the last 24" of a 20' long 1/8" steel cable attached to 80# Trilene Big Game mono. I had 13 big mullet on for bait when I caught that Hammerhead...looked like a lost stringer of fish.



Sharks have a great sense of smell, but they have an AMAZING sense of electro-reception. They can sense LIVE bait even when they are upcurrent, unlike the dead bait most fishermen use.

Awesome to hear you always catch your bait or you have to buy it? Sometimes i can go down there and can catch it easy other times i cant find it for anything


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[Big Lee]

No added value here. Just enjoy seeing some of these sharks y'all catch!! The same sharks I'm sure I swam with. And to the guy that swam the bait out.... You're nuts! Lol

[Native Texan]

Awesome to hear you always catch your bait or you have to buy it? Sometimes i can go down there and can catch it easy other times i cant find it for anything


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We always caught our bait.

Big mullet was our favorite live bait, and could usually be caught in the 1st or 2nd gut with a cast net on an incoming tide. If we couldn't catch them, dead shrimp on a small rod could catch big whiting that worked good too. Another VERY GOOD bait is skipjack.

We used an old aluminum canoe to run the baits out past the 3rd bar as much as 400 yards. Sometimes it wasn't necessary to be out that far, because we caught 6-7' blacktips from the 2nd gut. Kayaks were unheard of here back then. If it was too rough for the canoe, we put on life jackets and swam them out as far as we dared to go.
I knew an old man that swam his baits out really far. He put it in a 5 gallon bucket with a lid and floated it out 400-500 yards. Guy was tough, even swimming out through lots of jellyfish.

[toomuchsun]

When I was a kid, surfers would jump off end of Bob Hall Pier (not legal but no one cared) and swim baits out on their surf boards for the shark guys and gals. Usually for a dollar. Kayaks were not around (sixties). I lived on the beach most of the summer working a surf stand for a friend but never swam a bait for a buck. I was hungry often but maybe a bit smarter than some considered this beach bum. And Bob Hall was insane long back than. Saw it rebuilt at least 3 times shorter each time after hurricanes. Fun and still play. Just less with age

[joevillars]

Heading to matagorda soon I hope




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[justletmein]

We always caught our bait.

Big mullet was our favorite live bait, and could usually be caught in the 1st or 2nd gut with a cast net on an incoming tide. If we couldn't catch them, dead shrimp on a small rod could catch big whiting that worked good too. Another VERY GOOD bait is skipjack.

We used an old aluminum canoe to run the baits out past the 3rd bar as much as 400 yards. Sometimes it wasn't necessary to be out that far, because we caught 6-7' blacktips from the 2nd gut. Kayaks were unheard of here back then. If it was too rough for the canoe, we put on life jackets and swam them out as far as we dared to go.
I knew an old man that swam his baits out really far. He put it in a 5 gallon bucket with a lid and floated it out 400-500 yards. Guy was tough, even swimming out through lots of jellyfish.

I'm always a big fan of match the hatch, if we're catching skipjack we use them, catching whiting use those, hardheads all we got then they get clipped and run out, etc. My favorite bait is a big whiting head, small (compared to what surf sharkers typically use) Mustad circle hook through the nostrils. Never fails to pickup normal size blacktips, biggest we got on that is 8'4" Hammer, that was on a 12/0 mustad circle perfectly hooked in the corner of the mouth. Hammers have kind of small mouths so it makes sense.

[hog_down]

[/quote]

HOLY BLEEP! What did that monster measure?