Shark chumming and autopilot patterns

[AT Grimaldi]

Hello all.

So I take my 24' Romarine Jenny Lee S of MV to the Inside Fingers for some sharking. I have just outfitted her with the Raymarine ST70 and love it - at slow speeds.

We set out our chum slick and I am on a straight course going 2 kts sog. We get a mako to the gunnel and two blues. Somewhere in here, I take the AP out of line "mode" and put it into spiral mode with a diameter of 1 nm. The AP does its thing and I get to actually fish on my boat. Wow!! What an idea!!

After that, no more sharks. We beef up the chum slick with a second bucket and increase ladles of chumly loveliness. Nothing. Nada. Null set.

One of my crew, Chuck and I speak tonight and he seems to think that a chum line in a straight narrow line forces the sharks up the line to our baits. When I put the AP in spiral mode, we confused the sharks and they couldn't as easily find out baits. In essence, we went from a highway of slick leading to our baits to a pond of slick with our baits somewhere in that pond.

Opinions, suggestions, comments etc?

Here are some pics from the trip.

[WeCatchEm]

Sounds like a good theory...I always believe the sharks get the scent of the chum line and know to swim up the line to find the source of the smell. (like if the boat was a wrotten whale carcass and they were trying to find it. I believe making it easier for them to find would prove better success than creating a maze. I have had times where we hooked one after another (blue dog). We would hook up to a big bluedog that would pull us off our slick just a small amount and after we landed him it wouldnt be another hour until we had them back in the slick. Probably trying to find the trail again. I believe a perfect straight line is the way to go...(just my opinion though)

[scottmori]

i think the problem may be that purple hat everyone is wearing??sharks dont like purple lol
jk
scott