Whats the biggest Shark

Supafly · 01-29-2001, 08:04 PM

It seems that there are alot of Sharks around in the summer time down in Hatteras. Whats the biggest you have seen caught off the beach? What species? I am always amazed with the diversity of species you can run into down there.

derf · 01-29-2001, 08:56 PM

when we were ther 1st week in june '00, in one afternoon counted 6 up to 5' ... sorry don't remember species . all at the same spot ; just south of the point

B. Myers · 01-29-2001, 10:56 PM

Biggest I seen was a sandtiger...about 5-6', and estimated @ 200#.

John M.- you got a picture of that still?

It was hooked in the pectoral fin, which was the reason it was landed

Sure did clear the swimmers outta there.

B. Myers

Supafly · 01-30-2001, 01:23 AM

Thats pretty cool. I would of loved to see the swimmers faces. The last time I saw a big shark near shore was at IRI on the North Jetty. I was standing there throwing a bucktail. Next thing I know this huge fish jumps clear out of the water about 10 feet off the Jetty maybe even closer. I was almost scared. At first I thought it was a dolphin but then I saw a guy in a little whaler hooked up chasing after this thing. The fish continued to rocket out of the water and I realized it was a very big Thresher Shark. It was probably 7 ft with the huge tail and maybe 300 pounds. It ran out of the inlet and the guy eventually broke it off but the shark continued to fly out of the water. It was amazing seeing such a big fish clear out of the water that close to shore. I am pretty sure it was tail wrapped and that is why it was going nuts. I wish there was some good shark fishing in Jersey it would be fun to do in the summer doldrums. Maybe there is who knows but I am sure its not as consistent as in Hatteras.

kw · 01-30-2001, 09:13 AM

I remember seeing a couple bull sharks caught at the point in the late '70's, 650# and 750#. I think Bob at RDT caught them. He used to have photos of them in his shop.

They used trash bags and the lifesaver trick to get the baits offshore.

John M · 01-30-2001, 09:16 AM

Brian I do have apic but its not ont he internet anywhere so I cant link it to this site......

Supa we had a couple of good night on sharks. One night in particular we must have landed 30 or more and had aleast that many bite offs.....the sharks were mostly black tips 50-75# lots of fun, soem of the guys hated them, but i had a ball catching them

------------------
John M
johnm@stripersonline.com

Supafly · 01-30-2001, 01:03 PM

Those were cool pics. Looked like ya had a crowd there. That shark had some mean lookin teeth. I would have a ball catchin sharks like that. Wouldn't wanna be swimming in the water though. If you are ever in Nags Head stop by Jennettes pier right across the street from Sam and Omies. There are some pics in there of some Monster Tiger sharks caught from the pier. I think one might have been close to a thousand pounds. I would love to see that fight from a pier.

Wormy · 01-30-2001, 01:15 PM

I was the one who caught the estimated 200# Sand Tiger that BMyers and JohnM mentioned above. That is the largest I have seen landed. I have heard about and seen larger just swimmin around though.
A couple years back when you could wade to the bar off of the point I saw the biggest hammerhead I have ever seen. He was an easy 10ft +. We would catch stripers on the bar and make the wade back with a limit of striper on a rope. It seemed I was the only one who could remember to bring a rope so I often had the task of pulling back around a 100# of stripers. Needless to say the wade back was very tense and stressful knowing that big guy was out there with us. Trust me, if I had of felt the slightest tug on the line he could have had all the striper he wanted and I would have walked on water back to the point.
The more I think about it I am sure everyone else left their ropes back at the trucks on purpose

Wormy

RICH SWISS · 01-31-2001, 12:21 AM

I used to spend alot of time down there in the summer months and shark fished at night with Bob and some of the other local guy's a buch of years ago. I have seen some truly giant sized sharks pulled up on the beach, some they would have to use the truck in order to drag them away from the surf. Guy's had fighting chairs , which plugged into their trialer recievers and used 12/0 penn reels, we would go down to the docks when the charter boats came in and take the tuna heads for bait. The serious guy's had zodiac boats to bring the baits out into the dark surf and they would set 3 or 4 rods out at all diferent distances from the beach then just kick back and wait usualy with a cold beer in hand, ah those were the nights. I'm not sure how big some of the sharks were but I would say afew would have reached the 800 lb. mark. Bigger then anything that I would want to swim with.

There were guy's from VA. that belonged to a club and they would come down all the time in the summer just for the shark fishing. I got to know afew of them pretty well and they were set up for JAWS , One of them (a week after I went home) caught an 1100 lb. lemon shark off the beach.

I would set up a heaver with a 6/0 and 60lb. test with the hefty bag and live bluefish for the blacktips during the day and have a ball. Most were like John said 50 to 75 lbs but one day I tied into one that I released but it was definitly over 100 lbs approx. 125 lbs. They are awsome to catch they jump and spin like mad , poor mans mako we called them. GOOD MEMORIES THANKS, "SWISS"

Critter Gitter · 02-01-2001, 09:58 PM

I caught a couple of Sand tigers over 200#s.
They were 92 in long and have also caught many in the 100lb range on Drum equipment. Of course I was fishing for them and using 120lb steel with 100 lb mono shocker and 20lb on the spool. These were also in the surf.
The best fight I can remember was a full adult female Sandbar about 150 lbs. These critters can school up in early May and just takeover the point.
I have some good pics but don't know how to insert them.
CG

Critter Gitter · 02-01-2001, 10:07 PM

Forgot to mention we got into a lot of Sandtigers in the 6 foot range past September
running with the big Drum at Assateague. One memorable night it was. A 100 lb Sandtiger fights just like a 40lb Drum so you never knew what you had till you beached it.
Critter Gitter

kw · 02-05-2001, 09:59 AM

I used to fish North of the Point for sharks, and used a Zodiac-type boat to get the baits out. I used a 14/0 Penn Senator on an 80# class tournament rod.

The Zodiac was fine on calm nights, but when things got rough it was pretty scary getting out. I can remember going airborne once running baits out.

A friend and finally got together and built a radio controlled device to run the baits out. We called it the "surf-sub". It resembled a cross between a derigible and a submarine, and was powered by a modified Minn-Kota trolling motor.

Funky looking but it worked real nice.