Doesn’t everyone enjoy summertime beach fishing in Florida? The sweltering heat, random thunderstorms, southeast winds stirring the waters, and bathtub-warm water! It’s been an off-and-on week with catches of the usual summertime whiting, local pompano, palometas, and ladyfish. This time of year, there aren’t a ton of food-grade fish, but the sharks are all over the place. However, targeting them can be a little tricky this time of year.
At the shop, I get countless questions daily on how to shark fish in the Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach area. Whether you’re after the giant 8ft+ sharks or the normal 3-6 ft sharks, there is a lot to learn about targeting and sizing your rigging to produce the best bites. Today, I’ll be talking about the 3-6 ft sharks, maybe even a tad longer, and how to gauge your techniques.
Call me crazy on this first method, but if a tarpon or big snook is swimming by, it has the best chance to hook them as well as the sharks. All you need are 2x-3x 5/0-6/0 inline circle hooks with 6 feet of 80# mono. Tie it directly to your braid using your favorite braid-to-mono connection. You will lose a lot more hooks fishing this way, but you will produce a lot more bites because there is no wire involved. If you hook a shark on the edge of its mouth, you’re not losing a hook, but you will have 20 people around taking celebrity photos of you, haha.
The second rigging to almost guarantee a nice shark if they bite the bait is using about one foot of #10 single-strand wire inline circle hook to swivel. Attach 5 feet of 200# mono with another ending swivel that will be tied to your main line, preferably 30-50# braid. If you stop by the shop, we can show you how to rig it up if that’s a little confusing.
The bait of choice is whole mullet cut in chunks, bonito steaks, stingray cutlets, and live whiting.
People seem to think that with these smaller sharks, they need super heavy setups to land them. Realistically, you don’t need heavy-duty setups unless your targets are giants. Setting yourself up with a 6000 series reel with 30-60# braid is all you need as long as you have the right leader setup. The rod doesn’t need to be crazy either; a standard medium-heavy 10-12 ft rod will work perfectly fine to get some cool pictures for your family. As long as the rod can cast a 4 oz lead, you’re good to go.
I’ll see y’all at the shop. Tight lines!
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