Shark Fishing for Beginners
I want to start this report off by thanking NC Sharker for everything he did to make this trip a success. The only day we could meet, he was supposed to work. Instead, he took off to go fishing! I arrived about 11 AM Thursday at Kure Beach. We checked in and unloaded, and Jason arrived. We started the trip by going to Freeman Park, which is a few miles North of Kure. Jason had a cooler FULL of bait. Conditions were EXTREMELY rough. He rigged up a mullet on his 6 wide and tried to yak it out. The waves were so close together and so fast, he couldn’t make any headway going out. Ended up dropping the bait in the wash and hanging out for a little while. These were conditions that I would never consider going out in at my experience level, but he made it out and back without flipping. Decided to move, and went to the point at the North end of Carolina beach. Fished another whole mullet there on the 6 wide and casted some metal and bait rigs with little success. After an hour or so, decided to move further south on Carolina Beach. Conditions had improved, so we set up for the long haul at this spot. Jason rigged a whole stingray on his 12/0.
This was ran out about 300-350 yds.
After these were set, we went to my 9/0 to decide about rigging for it. We decided to put one of their wind on leaders on it. We started to tie the bimini twist to form the loop to connect the windon, and the 6 wide starts clicking. We ran to the rod, and Jason picked up to feel if it was still on. I saw him run back a little to seat the hook a little better, and handed the rod off to me! I start cranking, and cannot really tell if it is on or not. Jason goes to the surf to wait for the leader. He kept asking me if it is on , and I keep telling him I don’t know. After a minute or two of cranking, I feel a fish! He must have been hanging out until I got him in close. I gave Jason the thumbs up and keep on cranking. Jason soon saw it and grabbed the leader and dragged it onto the beach. I am waiting for pics of me fighting the fish and poses with it to be emailed to me. Another angler (the same guy whose Granddaughter Jason helped catch the big blacktip) was driving by while I was winding it in, and offered to snap photos for us (He used his camera, I forgot to give him mine). It was a perfect corner jaw hookset, and rather than trying to yank out the big 20/0 circle, we used boltcutters on the barb and slid the hook out. After I cut the hook and got the poses, I started snapping pics of Jason releasing the fish. Healthy blacktip on the 4′ range. We were so set on getting a clean release, we didn’t sex it, measure it, or tag it.
It didn’t want to leave the shallow water, so Jason decided to take it out a little farther.
This is the mullet the little guy hit
Jason ran another bait on the 6 wide and we went back to my 9/0. Put the windon and trace on, and put the scraps of stingray from his 12/0 bait on the 20/0 circle. It was 3 pieces about 10 or 12 inches long and 4 or 5 inches wide. He ran it out about 200-250 yards. In the last few minutes before dark, the 9/0 starts clicking! Justin Stewart is there by this time. Jason goes to the rod and picks it up. He feels the fish pulling him toward the water and hands it off to me. When I start to feel the heavy weight pulling down on the rod, I take a couple of quick steps back and everything breaks loose. Drag starts screaming, I am having a hard time keeping the rod up and I am PUMPED. He stops for a second and I feel head shakes. Every time his head moves, the rod is bobbing in my hands. I start cranking trying to do something, and he takes off again under heavy drag. It was not far into the run and it slacks up. Noooo I think to myself. What did I do wrong? What failed? Is he charging the beach? I wind for all I am worth, and my worst fear is realized: HE IS GONE! We look at the business end and find the windon tailwhipped. All of you know I am new to this, but I don’t think this was your average 6′ shark. Jason seemed to agree that it was probably a pretty good fish. Oh well, maybe next time. We hung around for a while longer to see if the 12/0 would roll, but it stayed quiet. Packed up and called it a night around 9 or 10 o’clock. Jason went above and beyond what I expected. He drove everywhere, provided bait and yakked out all the baits. He worked his tail off to try and get me a fish. He succeeded. I caught a decent size blacktip , and experienced some MAJOR pullage from a shark that very well may have spooled me if not for the tailwhip. Once again, thank you Jason and Justin for all of the help and hospitality to someone you just met. I will get the action shots and poses up as soon as I receive them. Until next time……………….
Here are a few more pics from the trip.Hooked Up
This is Jason doing the Blacktip Boogie after Miss Blacktip wanted a few toes to snack on.
