SHARK TROLLING QUESTIONS

[CSS]

hey guys have any you guys from jersey area put any time in trolling for threshers and makos and if so how did you think it compared to chumming i always chummed but i think i would like to give trolling an honest effort this year, what kind of lures do you recomend and how fast and deep i heard about some guys pulling a fender teaser , how many lines did you run, did you keep them close to boat, not looking for any well guarded secrets just tryin to find out how to get started and see if it is as productive as chumming, my boat is small cc so cant run lines like a sf , thanks for any info , also what kind of speed do you troll.thanks again for any info. CSS

[DropinBack]

Have caught makos on the troll while bluefinning...

They will eat anything...

[On The Edge]

The only trolling i have ever done sharkin is trolling back up the chum slick at the end of the day. We generaly put out 2 lines one with a butterflied bluefish or mack and one with a bluefish filet and large pink skirt. Speeds we are still experimenting with but for makos fast is better.

I am courious about what others are doing as well as i don't have much time in trolling for sharks..

[Shortfin]

Got some great tips from Fred Archer but have not had any great sucsess's as of yet ,,1 BlueDog and 1 small Mako not giving up ,always looking for better techniques

[gman]

Fred Archer who frequents this board is the king of shark trolling. We tried it with mixed results but like anything you need to be dedicated and put your time in.

On the west coast thats all they do for threshers .... troll

[El Capo]

Fred Archer who frequents this board is the king of shark trolling. We tried it with mixed results but like anything you need to be dedicated and put your time in.

On the west coast thats all they do for threshers .... troll

We catch most of our thresher on the troll in pretty short water along the beach out here.There are a number of techniques that work here but my favorite is to slow troll live mackerel bridled to a circle hook.Many a thresher are caught by the tail with the snag and drag technique.I prefer to let them whip it with the tail and then feed it to them.They don't jump too often when hooked in the tail.In a smaller boat you can troll around in idle and if that is too fast then you would just kick it in and out of gear.Downrigging the bait works very well but I have never been fishing back east and I am not familiar with the depth of your thermocline or anything about your fishery so I can not offer up much help there.I put them on the downrigger and the outrigger with equal success but prefer to see them come up and slap it on the surface.We catch them in water from say 60' deep along the beach all the way out to the continental shelf and on the high spots and banks that are plentiful along our coastline.

Fred is the man with the answers.Hope that helps,El Capo.

[Capt. kapoc]

The times that i've gotten hit up by a mako it was alway on the most expensive thing in the spread LOL the seem it fancy the outer GREEN squid in my green bar that is trolled off the bridge......when the come in they come in hot and are RUTHLESS!!!!!

[CSS]

thanks guys for the responses, i was going to put most of my trolling effort into threshers in shallow water say fifty to hundred or so deep i understand alot of people have seen them feeding on bunker and blues in this area, sometimes in forty to fifty feet of water, have caught a thresher in fifty eight feet, is it true threshers usually come on deeper baits? the one i caught was right on bottom , hopefully i will get some time to give it a good try, have to do some experimenting using downrigger and try some live small bluefish,thanks everybody doesnt sound like trolling for sharks is a east coast thing yet. CSS

[misokat]

We tried it a couple of times last year, but no takers, plenty of them around last couple of years, and def in shallow water, caught my biggest 380 in 40ft of water, was at the Canyon Runner show in ac and was talking to a west coast sharpie who does troll for them reg, found out that all of the ones he hooks are hooked in the tail, after hearing that i decided to give up on trolling for them, the thought of spending 4 hours plus hooked up to one of those beasts by the tail just doesnt appeal to me or my back.

[Captain Fred Archer]

New book, just out...

Info on it will be on my website in a couple of days.

As it is with many styles of fishing, there are a lot of different alternatives available. Some are better than others, some are better or worse, depending on time of year and the bait that the fish are concentrating on, or where you are fishing for them. Sometimes the fish are shallower (often the pups), sometimes they are in deeper locations (usually the big ones), some ways tail hook more fish (threshers) than others and unlike some say, this isn't usually a death sentence for the fish if you know how to handle and release them and if you use lures and techniques that eliminate tail hooking. T sharks fight like the devil, whichever end you stick them in.

Then there is tackle and rigging. Do you need a downrigger? Outriggers? Mono line? Braid? Cable leader or single strand? How do you rig all of that? And once you know how to rig, you can save a bundle on lures and wind up with better than store-bought models if you know how to make them yourself (which we show you how to do in the book that follows), plus there are ones that you can build/use that are far less dangerous to the angler and crew than some popular models. Yes, lures can be dangerous - dangerous as hell, as a matter of fact! As far as tackle is concerned, you can learn how to match the gear to the size fish that you catch and know what is what as far as that's concerned and then have a lot of fun with the small ones and the medium sized ones, but never get surprised by a big one that will destroy the wrong gear. Again, if you know how.

And then there is learning about the dangers of shark fishing, something that rarely gets mentioned to the newbies for some reason that truly concerns me. You are going to encounter makos while you're thresher fishing, or the other way around, if you know what you're doing. Each presents its own particular challenges, fighting, releasing, and gaffing factors that should come first in any discussion concerning shark fishing. The book that follows has numerous safety warnings called HEED OR BLEED! that people should be very aware of. The book makes certain that they are, period.

Here is a good way to learn all of the above, and a lot more...


The New Shark Chummer's Bible


A whole new approach to fishing for makos and threshers that combines the two best ways of catching sharks; chumming and trolling. The technique taught in this book eliminates blue sharks, dogfish and other undesirables, lets you fish little tackle for little fish and big tackle for big ones with no mismatches. THE very best way to chum for threshers that easily rivals trolling for them and offers all mouth-hooked fish...and a whole lot more, including the all-important safety factors so rarely mentioned by Internet shark "advisors". This book is for all, from beginners to pros.

220 pages, 158 color pictures and illustrations of the whole, entire game, right down to butchering. And remember, e-books will read themselves to you!

Here's what I'm talking about when it comes to safety factors rarely mentioned by those offering up shark fishing advice. This book explains how to avoid having this and other bad things from happening before you find out about them the hard and bloody way.

Shark fishing is fun, but safety first!

In the book, this first picture is called...



"The definition of the expression "Holy Shit!"