Article by Capt. Lance Smith
Well, since I'm not quite as computer savvy as Capt. Franky Pettolina (I don't even know what a # hashtag is), I'll just relay that, as of this writing, the first white marlin of the year has still not been caught out of Ocean City. It seems that the tuna and mahi are still well offshore when boats are able to get to them and the wind has still kept most of us from stocking up on flounder. Fortunately, sea bass fishing has been terrific when the weather cooperates. With tuna, mahi and the first whitey just in range, outside of the Mako Mania Shark Tournament, a lot of us have forgotten about shark fishing, especially without the old Ocean City Shark Tournament which was a great event. Although this may be more of Capt. Mark Sampson's field of expertise, I have managed to hook quite a few sharks in my lifetime so I figure I will throw in my two cents.
Starting with the coveted mako shark, one thing I have noticed in the past few years is that fisherman are either running too far offshore or not quite far enough. Now, if you want to be like the late Capt. Billy Verbanas out of Delaware who broke his own state record for mako sharks more than a few times, than overnighting in 1,000 fathoms is fine. I can remember running to the Fingers and fishing in 120-feet of water and catching makos when I was younger. I can also remember anchoring on the Jackspot and chunking up as many bluefin tuna as we wanted in the middle of the day on 150 lb. leader!
Now, fishing in 120-feet or less of water, especially around wrecks or reefs, is great for thresher sharks and you may even bump into a mako. It seems that running just a tad bit further towards the Sausages, Hambone, Hot Dog or Massey's Canyon gives you a better shot these days.
Years ago there were days when keeping a shark bait in the water without it being eaten by a chopper bluefish was nearly impossible. The upside to this was that you always had fresh bait and when the blues disappeared you knew there was a shark in your slick. We would take a couple of large blues and string them up along the side of the boat and constantly shear small pieces of flesh off of them as added fresh chum. Unfortunately, I haven't seen a bluefish in my chum slick in over five years. What I do often see, especially on calm days, are huge schools of bluefin tuna making their way to the north. With all of the larger bluefish hanging out in the back bays and inlets over the past few years maybe the makos have changed their diet.
I only take a few mako trips a year and they make for great shakedown runs for a first trip. I almost always end up with a mako as well. Now, granted, I am not seeking any monsters, but a 100 to 150 lb. shark is more than enough to feed my huge family and all of my neighbors. Plus, most of the smaller fish are males and their flesh tastes a lot better than that of a 500 pound female. I see no need to take more than one or two of these fish a season, unless someone specifically wants to catch a shark after you have returned from earlier trips with makos in the box. I will also keep a few in late summer that end up as bycatch while overnight tuna fishing in the canyons.
You can make shark fishing as simple or as complicated as you like. Our fellow fisherman in California who fish for monsters will use drums of fresh bait that they continually mash up and either ladle or pump overboard. I have found that in our waters at least, you really don't have to complicate things too much. Two buckets of either mackerel or bunker chum, a half dozen frozen Boston mackerel and a half dozen snapper bluefish are about all that you need. I like to leave one bucket out the night before to thaw a bit and keep the other bucket frozen.
When we get to the fishing grounds, I will use a cordless drill to put a number of 1/4 to 1/2-inch holes in the thawed bucket to get the slick going. I simply hang the bucket over the side on a rope and by either lengthening or shortening the amount of rope I have out, I can control the rate of chum that flows out. A shorter rope will cause the bucket to rock up and down with the boat and release more chum. Likewise, a longer rope will simply drift in the current and slowly dispense pieces. You may have to play with the number of holes that you drill and the length of the rope that you use to get things just right. Remember, you want to entice the sharks, not feed them! On a flat calm day you may even have to lift and drop the bucket just get some chum to flow from it.
Now, if you are using my simple method, here is the most important thing to remember; NEVER tie the rope around the wire bucket handle! If you do, eventually you will look down and see that your bucket is gone because the handles almost always break. Instead, drill two holes in the bucket large enough for your rope to fit through. One hole goes in the lid, and another hole goes through the very top of the bucket on the side. Line up these two holes, thread your rope through, and with a couple of overhand knots you will have nothing to worry about. I also like to add some bunker (menhaden) oil into a small water bottle with a few small knife slits in it and tie it off to a cleat with some light mono and the cap still on. This gives me a surface visual of my slick and helps me to keep my baits in the chum.
As for the actual rigging and bait attachment, if you have been reading any of Capt. Sampson's articles lately he is exactly right: small to medium baits will outfish giant ones and circle hooks are definitely the way to go. Before scaling down from 50 to 30 lb. gear, and even light tuna jigging rods with braid and using circle hooks, I have never seen a mako jump! Now, instead of bringing a green and perfectly healthy, gut hooked mako to the side of the boat (where he/she will inevitably ruin your paint job and twist your gaffs into pretzels), you get to actually fight the fish with the possibility of a few jumps and wear them down to where they are much easier to handle at boat side. Makos are often easiest to boat when you see them sniffing around your baits first. Simply use a small piece of bait that are slightly bigger than your chum pieces, like a half of a mackerel fillet, and let it drift in front of the shark. Almost always they will inhale that bait without even chewing it and all you have to do is let the circle hook come tight in the fish's jaw.
As for long drifts versus short drifts, there have always been two schools of thought. The long drifters never want to break their slick for fear of losing a fish that may be working towards them. The short drifters would rather stay over promising structure, even if it means picking up and relocating a few times throughout the day. I am not going to tell you which method is better, but what I will tell you is that if you don't see a contour line coming up on your GPS for over a mile, and the next one is just as far away, you should probably move. Makos do not inhabit lifeless stretches of flat bottom. For long drifts I prefer a north or south drift that will keep the boat drifting in an area of small humps and hills, versus east to west where the next drop-off may be a mile or two away. As for fishing areas such as humps or hills, I prefer to start a 1/4-mile down drift and once I have crossed the hill I will pick up and try somewhere else once my intuition says that there were no fish there.
I love shark fishing! Just waiting for that fin or cobalt blue back to show up in the slick can really get my heart racing. Capt. Mark Sampson is by far the king of this fishery, but there are many other well respected charter boat captains here in the pages of the Coastal Fisherman that can take you out for an exciting day of sharking. As an added bonus, it’s a great way to cut your teeth on offshore fishing on your own boat if you aren't quite comfortable running to the canyons yet.
Until next time, go catch something for me as I continue to work on my boat dammit!
Lance Smith is an outdoor writer and Captain of his family’s boat, ‘Longfin”. His column appears every other week in the Coastal Fisherman.
