SHARKS
When it’s good, it doesn’t get much more exciting!
The Blue Shark population has really increased in our waters to the point where we don’t aim to catch one or two fish in a day, but hope that more people catch than don’t. We only started Sharking seriously in 2011 and boated 32 fish up to about 110lb in six trips (we missed or lost another ten or so fish) and our best day was caught eight, lost two. Eeveryone aboard caught one and two people hooked two.
If you want exciting fishing but aren’t too bothered about eating your catch, then Sharking has to be the most exciting fishing around. Most Blues are between 30lb and 70lb and they fight particularly well. Because the average size isn’t huge, we don’t fish heavy for them and just winch them in, we fish lighter than we do fo eels, using 20lb rods, 20lb braid and barbless hooks. Expect scorching runs away from the boat at the beginning of the fight and 100 foot deep runs straight down when they see the boat. Dan recently took a couple of friends (Salmon and Sea Trout ghillies from the Arundel Arms) Sharking for the first time ever this year and they rated it as the most excting day’s fishing they have had in years and can’t wait to go again next summer!
Blue sharks are the most common around our coast but we do get the odd Porbeagle and Thresher (the British record Mako was caught off the back of the Manacles some time ago) so we keep a couple of really heavy 50lb roller tipped trolling rods and lever-drag Shimano’s on the boat just in case a real bruiser turns up.
A day Sharking is a long day (10 hours). We start by knocking up some fresh bait for hook-baits and chum (to go with the bran and Pilchard Oil) in the form of Mackerel and Whiting. We then steam out to about 15 to 20 miles before slowing down and chumming the water for the last two miles. We then stop the boat and run out four floats with Shark baits attached and wait. More baits doesnt result in more fish, just more tangles, so we normally fish 8 people maximum on the boat, half-hour on, half-hour off, and keep our fingers crossed.
Once we have started fishing and set up our slick of ground-bait, we don’t move for the day or we would leave the baited water behind. Sometimes you have to wait a long time for the first fish (sometimes it never comes!), other times you have two fish in ten minutes, you just never know, but the sense of anticipation is tremendous.
All Sharks are put back alive; don’t even ask to kill one. Blues do not taste good and you would do better eating the bait so it really would be a shame to kill what is probably the best looking fish in the sea for nothing.