Article by Capt. Mark Sampson
Sharks are certainly available to local anglers from the spring right into fall, but because late May and early June are typically the best time of the year to hook up with a mako off Delmarva you can bet that over the next few weeks more than just a few anglers will decide to spend their day drifting along offshore as they watch colored floats for signs that some big rough-skinned monster has shown interest in one of their baits.
As everyone knows, chumming and shark fishing goes hand-in-hand, so not too many anglers will head out with the intent of hooking one of the critters without the aid of something that will help produce a scent trail to attract their quarry to their boat. Chumming techniques vary from port to port and from boat to boat, but they all have the same goal of bringing sharks in close to the boat. As I emphasized in my book "Modern Sharking", when chumming for sharks, the idea is to attract sharks to the baits - not to feed them before they get there, and while I don't imagine too many anglers will argue with that statement, I find it interesting that most still practice the "more is better" approach to chumming.
This really came to light one day as I was reviewing a website for an annual shark tournament that's held in July a few states to the north. The tournament directors noted that the local tackle shop was taking advance orders for bait and chum. They went on to recommend how much bait and chum each team should expect to use during each of their fishing days. I was shocked to see that they recommended that anglers take four buckets of chum and two flats of mackerel for each day of fishing! Considering that the fishing conditions and species of sharks up there are not much different from what we have off Delmarva in June, I figure that's more than five times the amount of chum needed for a full day of sharking. As far as I'm concerned, using four buckets of chum in a day is not only a waste of money, it's also counter productive to the efforts of hooking a shark because more is "not" better when it comes to attracting sharks. Remember - the goal is to attract not feed!
We all know that God gave sharks an incredible sense of smell. In fact their olfactory system is so good that just a trickle of scent carried in the current will get their attention and have them headed to the source. It's simply not necessary to overdue it with a cloud of chum and fish chunks drifting from the boat. Don't get me wrong, I know that anglers who chum heavily still hook their share of sharks, but after years of experimenting with different chumming techniques I've concluded for a couple reasons that modest chumming is more effective than heavy chumming. For one thing, too much chum and chunks added to the water might actually feed the sharks and give them no reason to come in and take a hooked bait. Anglers shouldn't be duped into believing that sharks are "bottomless pits" that will continue to eat as long as there is food available. If a shark gets filled up on free baits that are being tossed overboard, it can get finicky and not be inclined to touch a hooked bait.
Another problem with heavy chumming is that it will allow baitfish the opportunity to hold way back in the chum line and feed. While this might not seem important until you imagine a shark wandering its way up a chum line only to encounter a feeding frenzy of baitfish 300 yards from the boat. I wonder if that shark would still be inclined to swim past the baitfish and on to the boat, or would it stop short and stay where all the activity is? Personally, I want all the action as close to the boat as possible so I'll chum light and tease the baitfish and sharks with just enough scent and taste in the water to bring them in close. In my opinion, the only thing that should be in the water is hooked baits and a modest path of finely ground chum that teases the sharks with the promise of a meal at the end of the trail.
I know that most shark fishermen will think I'm full of hot air, but after a lot of trial and error we've developed a chumming technique that allows us to lay out a chum line that successfully brings in sharks while using as little as 2-3 gallons of chum over a 7-8 hour period. Here's how it works: We start by freezing our chum in 1-gallon Zip-Lock bags. When preparing for a trip we bring out enough bags to get us through as many hours as we plan to fish, along with maybe one extra bag in case we stay longer than expected. These bags are kept in a cooler so they stay frozen until needed. A 5-gallon bucket with a quarter-size hole in the lid is all we use for a chum dispenser (forget the milk crate). Air trapped in the bottom of the bucket keeps it floating upside-down and the chum flowing properly. Chum sold in local tackle shops usually comes frozen in 4-5 gallon buckets. If purchased ahead of time this chum can be thawed, scooped into one-gallon bags, and then refrozen. I don't care for a real coarsely ground chum, I prefer that it comes out of the grinder looking like hamburger. Unfortunately, if you have to buy chum you won't have much choice other than to take what they have. The course stuff tends to clog the exit hole of the chum bucket makes it more challenging to maintain a steady even flow.
I know that this method of light chumming is a departure from what most anglers do when they're trying to catch a shark, but after years of experimenting with different chumming techniques I can say with great certainty that this simple method is the best way to attract sharks without a lot of mess, feeding them along the way, or wasting a lot of chum (and money) in the process.
Mark Sampson
