Blue Sharks Suck

[ADDfishing]

Deep & Reel...

Counter points taken. Looks like I need to fuel the boat up and do some further research. Hope all the threshers aren't gone yet, my window is closing, but I have a feeling there's still a few hanging around here. Now, eveyone is completely posessed over catching footballs and couldn't care less about Threshers.
Could it be that shark fishing is getting a little more technical??? Do I have to use a different setup for da whips vs. makos???

I think between the three of you, a whole new section sf.com devoted to shark fishing could be made... great!

[Deep C]

Now you could be on to something with whip vs mako. Its possible that the electrical fields might interfere too much with their eating habits. Different species have different "ranges" that will attract or repell..
We catch usually a bunch of makos. Blues when they find us swarm. Whiptails not as common though they live in some of the places I do fish.
As a matter of interest I had a pending record big eye thresher back when they were legal on mono leader while live baiting for marlin... The leader held through a brutal way long fight.
My way isn't the only way or only right way. Its just how I do it...

[BluePrints]

Now, eveyone is completely posessed over catching footballs and couldn't care less about Threshers.

As you should be, leave those toothy animals alone. Bubba & John would have cried when we cut that mako off on Wed.

[Big Jay]

Now you could be on to something with whip vs mako. Its possible that the electrical fields might interfere too much with their eating habits. Different species have different "ranges" that will attract or repell..
We catch usually a bunch of makos. Blues when they find us swarm. Whiptails not as common though they live in some of the places I do fish.
As a matter of interest I had a pending record big eye thresher back when they were legal on mono leader while live baiting for marlin... The leader held through a brutal way long fight.
My way isn't the only way or only right way. Its just how I do it...

Paul i disagree with the electrical theory

The STANDARD procedure for defending yourself against a shark attack when diving is the back of your dive knife tapped on the nose. Sends em packing. Now imagine them trying to eat a bait on a wire leader. How would they do that without it coming off the nose? Think about it.

I'll admit, it does puzzle me a bit about the Mako Magnets effectiveness and the counter theory to all this. I think it might be an issue of "dead current" metal. Meaning, metal with no current going through it.

Either way, i don't know. I am probably going to try something a little different this weekend. May try pulling a barely legal YFT with a circle hook to mono at the canyon.

Zar gave me a good tip to electrify the leader using simple homemade supplies.

[Captain Fred Archer]

Now please, the following is no brag - just facts. I have fished sharks hard for well over forty years now. Over that time I have caught big, big numbers of both makos and threshers of all sizes, from tiny to BIG. I wrote the first and only book ever on the best ways to catch thresher sharks. It was based on techniques that a few other "mad scientists" (at the time) and I developed for catching a shark that was a newsworthy "odd catch" until the secrets to catching them came out. That book was followed by four other books about both chumming and trolling for sharks, plus numerous articles in the major saltwater print media.

I made a lot of mistakes over my many years of shark fishing, but I learned from them all and we managed to sharpen our game to a very successful level, right up to the point of winning a lot of shark tournaments. (You all might be very surprised to learn of a recent major east coast shark tournament winning thresher that was caught trolling. You know, that way that I keep getting my brains bashed in for saying is THE best way of catching them and a great way to catch makos too?)

A few things learned and passed along here. First, it is a proven, scientific fact that EMF does have both positive and negative effects on sharks of all kinds. Too much is bad. In the old days, when we fished split leaders of single strand hook leaders and cable uppers, this was clearly evidenced when some makos would get wrapped in the cable while circling a bait and would suddenly start popping off wild jumps all over the place well before they were hooked. Those fish acted like they had been hotwired to a truck battery (and that is exactly how we described it to each other) and in a way, they had. That is because stranded cable with its many small metal wires offers up far more surface area to react to saltwater and consequently the electolosis emitted is far greater than that of single strand wire.

So, we dumped the cable upper leaders and went to heavy mono ones that varied according to the size outfit they were on...this, because "the faster the shark, the smoother the skin" and we knew we didn't have to worry about mako or thresher skin ruining the mono. The fact that we bait and switch all of our sharks (and can forget the blues and doggies) means that we actually match the tackle up to the size shark that shows up, so we don't wind up with any of those "Little fish on big gear", or "Big fish on little gear" situations.

It didn't take long before we also cut way down on the length of our single strand leaders. This helped eliminate the old single strand bugaboo of them kinking and breaking - usually when a fish was being leadered. They only average two or three feet, so any EMF negatives are gone and the lower ones emitted by the short leaders could, in fact, be a positive. Because we get to see every shark that we bait and how it reacts to the bait and leader, it is clear to us that any EMF here is either too little to matter, or as noted, maybe even a plus. The bottom line is that they get bit like champs, so we don't worry about that kind of stuff anymore.

One man's opinion based on a lot of years of fishing for and catching game sharks.

We use circle hooks that are inexpensive in the first place and ARC Dehookers for releases. We only kill one adult thresher a year and release nearly all of our mako sharks.

Blue sharks...YUCK! You can have 'em!

JayMan,

Good on ya on the big bait. Best way is to troll it or them as teasers, with no hooks in them. Have faith that any mako or thresher that comes after a trolled or power chummed big bait teaser will not only catch up to and whack or chomp on it, but that you will have to reel like hell to keep it away from him and that he will follow it right up to the boat and be aggressive as hell. Gamefish of all kinds get all fired up chasing after teasers, but none among them is as tenacious and determined than the game sharks! We pitch smallish fillet baits at them after carefully removing the teaser from the water and sizing them up. This is the heart and soul of both the trolling and power chumming techniques explained in the relevant books.

Our shark books are available at www.fredarchersworldoffishing.com

[Captain Fred Archer]

Gosh, I didn't mean to shut this thread down, like it appears I might have! Hopefully, some of you are out trying the trolling or power chumming techniques and you'll come back and post after seeing the results for yourselves.

One thing is for darned sure; some who have already learned the power of these methods are going to lay low, not say doodly about the successes that they have been having, and just continue to win tournaments doing it. I can't say that I blame them, considering the amount of money invested, the potential winnings, and the prestige involved in shark tournaments. And in fact, this sort of thing isn't unusual at all when it comes to hot, new techniques as far as just about any kind of tournament fishing is concerned.

The further fact is, even when winners are forthcoming about how they caught their fish, if the technique or lures are radically different than the way that kind of fishing has always been done, some just don't believe them. In fact, I had a recent tournament winning captain write to me, thanking me for convincing him to start trolling for sharks (both in tournaments and on charters), telling me about his recent tournament win, and also telling me that "Ah, bullshit!" thing is exactly what happened with him after he told some others how he and his team had done it.

I guess the moral there is exactly what some might think it would be - "Don't expect most successful trollers and/or power chummers to run around raving to everyone how great it is working for them and how they are winning tournaments doing it". As another successful shark tournament winner said to me a couple of years ago..."Hell no, I'm not going to tell the others about this! We're just going to keep on kicking their butts and collecting their money. Let them figure it out for themselves, but we sure as hell ain't helping them!" Like I said up top, the moral is a lot more common than the other way around. I find that quite understandable and in fact, expected.

It seems ironic to me that so many fishermen can be so bullheaded and resistant to change, even to the extent of not making a minor effort (buying and reading a book about it to learn the how-to details because like everything new, it is important to do new things the right ways) so that they can try something different to see for themselves what's up. This is especially so when one considers the amount of money that can be won in shark tournaments if you have a leg up on the rest of the competition, which has been proven but not broadcasted many times and which was proven again very recently.

Making this whole matter even more perplexing to me is that tournament fishing or otherwise, one can virtually eliminate blue and other scavenger sharks like dogs from their catch, if they so choose. We developed the trolling and power chumming techniques for several reasons, not the least of which was to eliminate the blue sharks that abounded in our waters (we did not have dogfish, thank God!), but also because both are far better ways of catching game sharks than the drifting and chumming that we started out with long ago. Add to that the fun, excitement, and vastly greater crew participation of teasing and bait and switch fishing for the super-aggressive game sharks - the makos and threshers - and again, it is hard to see why so many are reluctant to try it, especially when it costs less than a bucket of frozen chum to do so and to get truly tuned into the right ways of doing them.

And of course, you can also concentrate exclusively on the biggest blues if there is the desire for that or a tournament division for them. We didn't have divisions for them on the west coast and none of us were interested in messing with the blues at all, unless we were introducing some folks new to the shark fishing game to it and wanted to break them in on a few blue dogs before having them meet their first mako or thresher. Otherwise, we had no interest in them whatsoever and simply did not catch them, or if we did, it was a rare incident caused by someone not doing something right.

I have to be perfectly honest about my opinion...a shark fishing forum might be a good idea here, but if there were one and it wound up being a continual re-hashing of the chumming/drifting game that has been practiced by so many for so long, I honestly can't imagine it being very interesting. If it wound up being a peaceful and free-flowing one where different approaches were accepted and maybe even considered, it might wind up being a very good one. Just one man's opinion, of course.

Meantime, good luck all, and however you go about messing with them, be careful around the toothy ones!

Our shark books are available at our website and on-line store.
www.fredarchersworldoffishing.com

[gman]

Fred you didnt shut it down at all I cant speak for everyone but my son Anthony and I love your work. You helped us a lot during the past two seasons while tournament fishing.

Jay is a bright young guy, I had the pleasure of speaking to him in detail this wednesday night while we had drinks and he may be young but he is innovative in many of his thought processes.

Great young gun for sure, I plan on fishing with him this season and spilling some blood

[Captain Fred Archer]

G-Man,

Many thanks for the nice words. It's been a pleasure working with an open-minded, inquisitive angler like you and that boy of yours is a tiger! You guys are great!

Please don't get my attitude about Jay wrong. Young or not, he's a thinker and experimenter and I can see the innovativeness that you speak of in the way that he thinks. And he is one of the reasons that this thread, which you and I both know could have turned a little nasty, has remained as polite and cool as it has.

He handles himself like an old pro already and with his attributes I think he's going to wind up an old hotshot, instead of a young one. That first one comes with experience and that open mind and the willingness to experiment and learn, which is a lot rarer than it should be. The second one is actually very rare too, but I have been around big game fishing for one helluva lot of years and have watched a handful of young'uns like him become true masters who I admire and learn from myself.

I'm talking about guys like Gary Caputi, Peter Barrett, Al Ristori, Tred (yup, that Tred, may he heal and come back to us), Mark Sosin, Jose Wejebe, Guy Harvey, and a select group of others. The strangest part about that group is that Gary, Pete, Al, Tred and Mark and myself were all Jersey boys and neighbors who knew each other and fished together since we too were youngsters. Pretty amazing, if you ask me! Those early days were special with those guys and so many new things going on in fishing.

So ennyhoo, thanks for the head's up and keep on keepin' on with that fine young lad and fishing partner of yours. And be careful out there, especially around the toothy ones!

Oh yeah, bait and switch. Looka that mako! She's a beaut! Grab the 50# outfit and pitch that *****! BINGO! GOLL DANG, LOOKATER GO! YAHOO!

(Sorry, I get like that sometimes. Can't help myself!)

Our shark books are available on our on-line store at www.archersuperbars.com

[gman]

G-Man,

Many thanks for the nice words. It's been a pleasure working with an open-minded, inquisitive angler like you and that boy of yours is a tiger! You guys are great!

Please don't get my attitude about Jay wrong. Young or not, he's a thinker and experimenter and I can see the innovativeness that you speak of in the way that he thinks. And he is one of the reasons that this thread, which you and I both know could have turned a little nasty, has remained as polite and cool as it has.

He handles himself like an old pro already and with his attributes I think he's going to wind up an old hotshot, instead of a young one. That first one comes with experience and that open mind and the willingness to experiment and learn, which is a lot rarer than it should be. The second one is actually very rare too, but I have been around big game fishing for one helluva lot of years and have watched a handful of young'uns like him become true masters who I admire and learn from myself.

I'm talking about guys like Gary Caputi, Peter Barrett, Al Ristori, Tred (yup, that Tred, may he heal and come back to us), Mark Sosin, Jose Wejebe, Guy Harvey, and a select group of others. The strangest part about that group is that Gary, Pete, Al, Tred and Mark and myself were all Jersey boys and neighbors who knew each other and fished together since we too were youngsters. Pretty amazing, if you ask me! Those early days were special with those guys and so many new things going on in fishing.

So ennyhoo, thanks for the head's up and keep on keepin' on with that fine young lad and fishing partner of yours. And be careful out there, especially around the toothy ones!

Oh yeah, bait and switch. Looka that mako! She's a beaut! Grab the 50# outfit and pitch that *****! BINGO! GOLL DANG, LOOKATER GO! YAHOO!

(Sorry, I get like that sometimes. Can't help myself!)

Our shark books are available on our on-line store at www.archersuperbars.com

Thanks Fred, I keep him and the younger one safe at all times, Im paranoid. ha ha If you think Anthony is good wait until you see Nico. GOOD LORD he is 5 going on 45 and loves to fish. My comments about Jay werent directed to you at all, just open ones.

anyway tight lines