Peterjay 0 Report post Posted March 13, 2017 I'm not sure if it's time to break out the 14wt or to steer clear of Cape Cod altogether. If you decide to toss a fly at a GW, it's catch and release only; they're protected nowadays. Of course, the fish themselves tend to practice catch and devour, so don't expect any favors from them. Whatever you decide to do, it would definitely behoove you to leave the Zodiac at home. http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_coverage/2017/03/more_great_white_sharks_appear_to_be_visiting_off_cape_cod?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialflow Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
agn54 0 Report post Posted March 13, 2017 You may need to start tying up some seal flies for your 14 wt. Would be one heck of a fight, though probably a brief one before your rod got turned into toothpicks. Why would anyone want to keep a white anyway? Are the good eating like a Mako or would it be just to hang them up at the dock for a picture like they used to do with tarpon? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Saltybum 0 Report post Posted March 13, 2017 Just up the road from me is the shark bite capitol, New Smyrna Beach. Cocoa Beach is not so bad for bites but the sharks are always around. It is their house. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bimini15 0 Report post Posted March 13, 2017 You are going to need a bigger hemostats. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Flat Rock native 0 Report post Posted March 13, 2017 You are going to need a bigger hemostats. You are hurting my ribs with this one... lol doesn't start to cover it. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Adam Saarinen 0 Report post Posted March 13, 2017 Touch it's nose & cut the leader with a Leatherman, good as landed in my book! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rocco 0 Report post Posted March 13, 2017 Where are going to mount it? Rocco Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
FlatsRoamer 0 Report post Posted March 13, 2017 I'm not sure why people even think about keeping sharks. Look how important they are to the ecosystem, and what would happen if they became extinct. Idiots Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Capt Bob LeMay 0 Report post Posted March 13, 2017 Shark fishing was my bread and butter in the early seventies, working out of the charter docks from Haulover up to the old Castaways on Miami Beach... We killed every one we caught for the taxidermist back then and I'm so glad that sort of stuff isn't popular any more.... To this day the shark population off of south Florida is nowhere near what it was and killing sharks was the direct cause... These days all shark fishing ends in a careful release - and that's the way it should be unless you're keeping one for the table My only encounter with a great white was with a small one, about nine feet, in the mid eighties - offshore commercial fishing by myself out of my old SeaCraft,,, I was about 30 miles out catching dolphin for the market when the animal swam towards my small skiff. At first I thought it might have been a mako and was making ready to try for it (mako back then and now is a high dollar table fish...). When I got a closer look at it and saw it was a great white (rare in these parts....) I very carefully moved to keep my center console between me and it.... NO, I didn't reach for a rod at all..... it made quite an impression on me. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Peterjay 0 Report post Posted March 14, 2017 I knew this topic would bring out the wise-crackers, and you guys didn't disappoint. I'd score Bimini a 10.0 with the hemostat remark. We've got the usual collection of big sharks here in the summer, and attacks do occur, but considering the number of people in the water, they're pretty unusual. There's an abandoned Coast Guard station out on one of our barrier islands, and the local Coasties liked to dive off the wharf and swim while they were taking breaks. That is, they DID, until they spotted an eight-foot tiger swimming right along the wharf. I don't know how much swimming goes on out there these days, but you can be sure that I'm not one of the swimmers. Seriously, I agree with Bob that sharks are in dire need of strong conservation measures. They're magnificent animals, and they're far less dangerous to humans than drunk drivers or greenhorn deer hunters. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Saltybum 0 Report post Posted March 14, 2017 A lot less dangerous than drivers messing with cell phones. Swimming in the ocean is pretty save until the sun starts setting then it's definitely time to get out. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bimini15 0 Report post Posted March 14, 2017 On the other hand, the fact that so many are sighted should be an indication of a healthy shark population. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Capt Bob LeMay 0 Report post Posted March 15, 2017 The shark population along the coast of the Everglades is in fine shape (so many critters that during summer you have to work to get a single fish to the boat after you hook up.... and a second fish after a shark bites the first one is just an impossible dream...) but along the Atlantic side the shark population is quite depressed. When I first came to south Florida (August 1971) there were so many sharks on the Atlantic side that every bridge between Miami and Miami Beach had great big sharks around them on any night you fished there (we're talking bulls up to ten feet, hammers as big as they get, as well as the occasional huge tiger shark - and all of them there to feed on tarpon, snook, and the clouds of ladyfish that most bridges held at night). I haven't seen that phenomenon since then, but I do have a vivid memory of the numbers of sharks on the docks behind every charterboat waiting for that truck ride to the taxidermist (back then it was Pflueger Taxidermy). It wasn't until many years later that I learned that anywhere in the world when you start killing sharks in numbers - you soon run out of sharks. They simply don't reproduce very quickly at all compared to other species (sharks give live birth once a year to a litter of pups and that's it....). Yes, they do need protecting and the current rules here in Florida are far better than they were years ago - but it will take a long time before places like south Florida recover (if it ever does...). Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
agn54 0 Report post Posted March 15, 2017 On the east coast the population in Miami may be down but that doesn't seem to be the case further up the coast near West Palm, especially when the spinners and black tips show up around this time of year. It's an incredible sight too since the water off of Juno is as clear as the Bahamas and you can see the sandy bottom in 20 ft like a swimming pool watching 8-10 ft sharks swimming all around right off the beach. Looks a lot like the shark pool at the old Miami Seaquarium. You can sit on the beach and just watch the huge splashes of them as they get aerial. I saw one launch about 15 ft from my starboard side while on plane one evening, one of the coolest things I have ever seen. Of course this is part of a migration and the population in the Lake Worth Lagoon is probably dismal as it is for most other species (though it is making a comeback). The population off the beaches in central florida seems healthy too. Shark fishing is real popular along the beaches for hammerhead, black tip, tigers, etc. but almost everyone I have met practices strict C&R. My friends who surf the Monster Hole assure me that the hammerhead and bull shark population is doing quite well off of Sebastian as well! I agree on protecting sharks, they are vital to the oceans. Personally, I don't really care for shark meat anyway but even if I liked it I would throw all of them back, they don't reproduce quickly like dolphin (the fish). Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Betty 0 Report post Posted March 15, 2017 "Dude! Hold the mackerel a little higher so he can see it!" Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites