Getting bait out there

[TheGreenOne]

After finding out tonight that shark fishing is legal off the beach in Dare County, after being told that it isnt hehe, i've decided to take a trip down to OBX the weekend of 7/24 - 7/26.

As I have no experience in a kayak, and I am quite horrid at casting on my conventional Penn 113....what are some good ways of getting the bait out 50-100 yards? i've heard of milk jugs, kites, trashbags, cardboard boxes being used, but am not real familiar with how to get them to work, or work with the current. Any advice, or point in the right direction would be great and helpful!


Thank you for your time!

Tight Lines!

TheGreenOne
Firefighter/EMT

[TheGreenOne]

accidenatlly posted twice, cant seem to be able to delete my thread either :-s

[derf]

practice and a casting lesson ..
everything you posted above
and some of it will probably get ya a ticket for littering .

[steve maranto]

The only way I could ever cast my 4/0 was to glue some pretty big magnets in on the sideplate. It was really easy and slows down the spool enough that it won't birds nest. You'll need a heaver to launch baits out and of course you'd have to order the magnets before your trip..it might be worth a shot. Otherwise yak is your best bet, and that will not be fun at night!

[TheGreenOne]

maybe ill offer someone some beer to yak it out for me lol

[jimmyray]

If you are renting a house you can often times have a Kayak dropped off at the house and ready for your vacation. I am heading down in a few weeks will be there from 8/1-8/8. Its a family vacation but I still manage to get my time in! Good luck enjoy! I will be in Frisco.

[TheGreenOne]

Unfortunately I am only down from 7/24 - 7/26 as it is a weekend getaway for me and my girlfriend. So we will be staying in a motel.

[derf]

if you really want to learn how to cast and get some distance , give ryan at hatters jacks a call for a private lesson

[boostjunkie1]

Freeze your shark bait in a ball....with the hook already installed....pull all of the line that you will be sending into the deep off the reel and lay it on the ground......get you one of those water balloon sling shots and drive 2 posts into the ground at the waters edge....Pull her back and let her fly ........... We have done this a couple times and can get the bait out 20+ yards compared to the big reel.......

I have also thought about using a remote control helicopter and rig up a release for the bait ball. Fly the bait out and pull back on the line to release the bait into the water......

The kayak will work but I prefer using a 12' flat bottom John boat.... I can walk it out past the breakers and then get in. The bait can be fresh and in the boat ready to go. Have a big paddle with you and set all of your baits at one go.

Just some ideas and tested methods....... We use the John boat the most...... Well that is unless I have the 190 Bay out there and then it is just really easy

[TheGreenOne]

Hmmmm, sling shot sounds like a good idea! Thanks

[longcaster]

Sling shot will land you in trouble. Plus if it pulls line off your reel it will backlash big time.

Sorry, you have the wrong reel for distance fishing casting. Your best bet with that stuff is on a boat or pier.

[surffishn]

Rent A Yak have you girlfriend yak the baits out

[mortimer77]

just get a daiwa slosh 20 or 30, install the brakes, put it on a 12'er, and sling it. the red brakes will allow even the most inexperienced to find 70+. a good way to practice is put an 8oz weight inside of a tennis ball that you make a slit in. the 8oz weight is what you normally throw down there and the tennis ball will imitate the wind resistance from a good size chunk of bait.
about the helicopter, that sounds like a great idea. let me know if it works.

[Silverado]

Old School Shark Fishing, Georgia Style:

Big Baits get Big Sharks. Favorite was a cow nosed ray about 2 feet long, not counting the tail. Got them from the shrimp boats, made arrangements before they went out dragging. Sliced the wing tips off. Ran a couple of 16/0's through the center portion. 10 foot leaders made from 1/16" or 3/32" SS cable. Used a 9/0 reel with 80 pound, and a 12/0 with 130 pound. Other good baits are bonita, tuna, small shark, other rays, any bloody fish. Remember, big baits rule. A 2 foot long bonita is ideal. My mom hated us, we had a big stash of bait in the garage freezer that we would get from the shrimp boats. A sharker's best friend was a shrimp boat operator!

From the beach: Figure out the current directions and time of day. From a point, cape or end of an island, usually have a off shore flow on ebb tide that will take the bait out to deeper water. We used balloons to float the bait out: Tie a lifesaver (the candy ring) to the leader near the bait. Using a different string, tie a balloon or two to the lifesaver. Might need a small balloon on the swivel end of the leader to keep it from dragging. Launch this outfit in the outflow from the beach and let it go, reel in freespool, keeping your thumb on the spool to prevent backlash. Let the balloon run out to where you want it. Put rod in sand spike, clicker on, and a slight drag if the clicker does not hold. After several minutes, the lifesaver will melt, bait will drop to the bottom. Sit back and wait! Big Tigers cruise off the second and third bars, looking for channel bass and whatever else shows up, so this would work great at Hatteras. Find the place where the Russian Couple was attacked by a big bull several years ago (the guy died), and you will be into sharks less than 50 feet from the sand!

Once a shark is messing with the bait (clicker making noise) we took the clicker off and fed line, sometimes for several minutes. Gotta make sure the critter has the bait way down its gullet before applying drag. I also had a bell on the rod tip.

From a pier, same thing, figure out the current direction at tide stages. Only used one balloon at the swivel, as we were in deep enough water at the end of the pier and did not need a balloon at the bait.

Biggest fish I saw caught using this method was a 13 foot tiger, picked up the bait maybe 125 yards off the beach.

Sometimes we could talk a crazy surfer into taking the bait out. Worked great if we were using a heavy sinker to hold the bait in one spot. This was pre-kayaks. Today I would use a kayak.

Other methods: Trolley method, cast out a grapple type sinker with conventional surf rod, and sand spike the rod. Attach a slider swivel to the line, and your shark leader from the shark rod to the slider. Use a light duty slider, or a lifesaver tied as above. Then trolley the bait out. When the lifesaver melts, reel in the sinker on the surf rod.

Or the Hawaii Ulua slider ring method. Cast out a grapple type sinker on a heavy casting rig. Then put the special slider swivel on the line, it is attached to the shark leader with the bait. Let it slide out to the sinker.

Trolley method and Ulua method both depend on a good out current.

Search the forum for Trolley method and Ulua method, both have been mentioned in the past.

Google "Tokunaga Store" for Ulua slide swivels, will give you a idea of what they are. In the shore fishing section.

After we had the baits on the big rods out, we had a couple of Penn 66's on 7 foot rods. I would rig up with 10/0 hooks, 6 foot leader, 16 oz sinker on a fish finder slide above the swivel, and about a 12 inch long mullet. I would cowboy this out 50 feet or so and put the rod in a sand spike. Caught a lot of blacktips and bulls this way, you would be surprised how many sharks are in shallow water just off the beach!!! I hooked up a 7 foot bull once when folks were in the water out past my bait. Did not take long before shark rods were banned on the beaches, bad for tourism.

I liked out going currents best, not only would it get the baits out, but the smell carried way offshore. I had two rods out one evening, baits were maybe 50 and 75 yards out. Sitting on the sand, I noticed a dorsal fin and tail fin on the surface, cruising around the baits. Then the shark cruised in to maybe 25 feet off the sand, water was maybe 5 feet deep. Fin told me this was a tiger, and it was big too, at least 6 feet from the dorsal to the tail. Never had a bait pickup, guess he did not like my offerings.

Oh, sharp hooks required. A file was always in my kit, I checked hooks everytime I rigged up a bait.

Be sure to check local regulations. Some shark species are protected. And some communities prohibit beach shark fishing, scares the tourists!

[longcaster]

What grandpa silverado did "back in the day" can't be done any more.

It is illeagal to use balloons for floats. All fishing tackle has to be able to be brought back in.

You can't trash the ocean. "Back in the day", we could.