Shark Action from the Kayak!

The last couple of weeks have seen some decent fishing here at Flagler Beach. The bait schools, mainly pogies have been showing up in good numbers and as usual, they are followed by things that like to eat them! The schools have generally been scattered and not bunched up in the normal tight cloud of flipping bait that we are used to seeing but they are there. This has made the tarpon more scattered and difficult to hook up with.

What has been here is big numbers is the Sharks! They are averaging much larger than normal also. All the sharks I caught Last Week exceeded 42″ with the largest being around 5’…..that’s  a real beast when hooked to your kayak.

For those that follow my blog you probably know that I really enjoy fishing for Tarpon from my Kayak in the ocean. Most of ocean adventures take place here off the beaches of Flagler County, particularly Flagler Beach. Sharks are a particular nuisance when tarpon fishing. They just wreck your leaders and you loose more than a few costly and valuable hooks to them. I would just as soon not be bothered with them when I am targeting Tarpon.

From my trip last week I came away with a little different outlook on the Sharks. I must have caught (10) or more that morning and I did not want to quit. By 12:30 it was getting late and time for me to be getting to work but the pogies were starting to bunch up and the fishing was picking up. All of the sudden it hit me that I was having a ball catching these larger sharks. I did not hook up with a Tarpon that morning but I did get to see a few roll here and there along with a few massive strikes.

As far as how to catch the sharks, you basically go about that the same way you would a Tarpon. I use a smaller spinning rod with a treble hook and egg sinker to cast into the pogy school and snag a bait. When the pogies are scatterd and you get a good opportunity to snag some extras it is a good idea to stock up. Once you have your bait you want to keep it in the school. I will slowly troll through the school and try to stay just in front of them with my bait behind me mixed in. I prefer to free line the bait with no sinker or float, etc. If you hook a tarpon you don’t want any of that extra rigging on your line. If the pogies are scattered I will try to stay somewhat in the middle of them and just move along at the same pace, which is typically pretty slow. Mullet on the other hand are a different story. They tend to swim so fast they are hard to fish. I much prefer to fish pogies over mullet.

Another thing I like to do is keep my drag set really light so the fish don’t steal the rod right out of the boat. I will open the bail to free spool, tighten the drag, then let the fish pull down the slack and set the hook.

Another problem comes with, what if it’s a legal shark I want to keep?  This technique works well for me. I will whip the fish down, lighten my drag paddle for the beach. the shark will swim in the same direction with tension on the line. I paddle up behind the breakers, wait until I see a lull, flip the bail open to free spool and stoke hard for the beach. Once you secure the boat ware it won’t float off you can work on fighting the shark. The last step takes a little care. once he’s in shallow water where you can catch him by the tail you can drag him onto the beach. Just be careful, a shark is fast and can whip around and catch you if your not paying attention.

Also, if you have been watching the local news lately, the beach patrol is flying the purple flag, warning of dangerous marine life present. Sharks are all over the place here right now and you might want to get out there and take advantage of the fun while it lasts.

Here’s some photo’s from the last trip……

Larry S.