How do you catch a BIG shark?

Rick,

Hitler heard you were trying to catch him, so he came out of the water to look for you!

Rick

First I'll preface my comments with the following disclaimer.

Here at least - Great Whites are fully protected.

Whether thats a 'good thing' or not - well, I'll let others make up there own minds.
I guess the fact that our own Fisheries department is under special parliamentary direction to kill a rogue white pointer thats gained a taste for humans over the last 4 or 5 years with now more than a handfull of confirmed declared kills - the last only in the last week or so (a surfer not more than 30 miles from where I live!).

Anyway - the rights or wrongs of it. I'll leave aside and TRY to asnwer your question about the 'mechanics' of the 'best' way to catch a seriously 'big' shark (Passed on to me first hand by one of our states BEST former 'big shark' catchers).

First you need to decide of you want to keep the jaws with teeth intact. This helps determine what system you use, - steel as in cable and chain etc has a real bad habit of destroying all the teeth in the jawbone - but is without doubt the most effective...

Attempts to coat the chain in heavey plastic pipe etc - will work to a small degree, but still expect some damaged teeth.

Most big shark hunters use a set line with DRUMS (55 gallon variety)...for flotation and they often mark the drums with radar reflectors - because they will be found a LONG ways away from where you hook your shark and radar will help you find em again when (if) they ever resurface.

You need a forged stainless steel hook with a shank a minimum 2 feet long, & gape of 10 inches to a foot. These aint cheap - I prefer the Mustad suicide style with offset point and a big barb.

At least 5/8th inch dia steel for the hook, (and I've seen these straightened!)

The hook obviously needs to be "razor sharp - triangle pointed".

Bait should be either a member of the tuna family of ~ 50 pounds or more OR a another shark carcase - up to 7 feet long!.(Least thats how long a tiger shark i've seen recovered WHOLE from the stomach of a 7 meter (23ft) great white!)

The stainless forged hook - needs to be connected with chain & shackles (plastic coated / shrouded inside heavey plastic pipe if you like to try to protect the teeth).

You definitely need to try and include as many "swivelling joints" as possible...

Most "Big Sharks" are lost because they "roll" themselves up in the chain until they get the attached rope near enough to their mouth to bite their way thru it.

If you counted the number of twists, you can expect it to exceed 10,000...so an effective yet strong swivel mechanism is crucial to success.

The more 360 degree swivel joints you can have, the more chance the shark WONT get the chain and any cables wrapped up into a ball so that it can get at the attaching rope..

Even then - it WILL be all wrapped up anyway - the rope will be destroyed on any large shark you catch so expect it to be a once offf useage rope..

The idea is that you anchor your bait in a likely area - (yes - with a danforth style boat anchor and chain, just as you would a boat) - then it's all attached to a series of 55 gallon drums, thethered together (with chain) that's then attached to Rope, which us thethered to the chain / cable and hook / bait.

Shark swallows bait - is hooked - takes off and drags anchor - and drums, which it pulls underwater for anything from a few hours to 24 or 48 hours before they will resurface again, if the waters not "too" deep and the drums not crushed too badly to refloat...

The idea is the drums flotation and drag eventually tire the shark enough, that it floats back to the surface and the drums can be found again using radar...

The biggest 'problem' is catching "smaller" sharks in the 12 ft range...which are big enough to swallow the bait - and get hooked - but too big for the great white to in turn swallow...

These annoying smaller sharks waste a lot of time and bait, and destroy a lot of rope etc. in the meantime.

Eventually - youll get your great white tho - just a question of waiting for the migrating whales to calve - when the great whites follow the mgration to eat the afterbirths (placenta's).

Most of the guys I know who've been successfull fish from boats over 60 ft long and sleep out all week - waiting to catch their shark.

You want to set your set line - within the continental shelf depths - because any deeper and the water pressures will crush the drums and you'll never see your shark again...

3 - 5 drums is usually enough to do the job, they will be crushed - but hopefully not bad enough to not float again.

Best a luck with it..

Cheers!

Catch a Shark

Sharks like an oily bait..slimy mackeral or something.. Sure people use blood burly but even being an ex-pro fisherman I still remember the best fun was as kids at the Bermi River mouth , out going tide..floating Buoy with baited hook secured and hanging about 6 foot below the surface . We used to bait that thing with bloody prime steak and often legs of lamb stolen from the Kitchen fridge ..and still catch woppers all the time... The secret was "whale oil" . Let it drip in the water or just have a soaked rag floating there and the oil trail used to drift out with the bait for as far as the tide would carry it..sharks used to pick up on the scent of the oil and follow it like a highway back down to our bait and bammo...worked every time.
Kevlar

Trouty

Weah gonnah need a biggah booaht....

Trout - yer an aussie, not a yarpie... am i correct?

Yep An Aussie

From the West Coast tho - not the Sydney Queensland Great barrier Reef east coast, that most tourists see.

Downunder us west coasters are called locally "Sandgropers".

Whats a yarpie?

Ohh yeah - when you get ya White pointer this close - it's prolly easies just to run around the deck a lot and draw attention to yaself - then wait for him to jump aboard!

Cheers!

yarpie = south african
sorry for the nik-names. Here's a run-down.
Kiwi = New Zealander
Aussie = You know
Pome = Product (or prisoner) of Mother England
Seppo (Zeppo) = American
Limey = British
Schwoogie = BWI Islander

Some are more politically acceptable than others, but I personally mean none of the names in a derogatory way... we're all just yachties. There are more, but I'll keep them out of a publicly viewed forum.

By the way trout - you have a beautiful country. I spent six months cruising from Brisbane around to Darwin before heading north to asia. I wish I had made it to the west coast, but I s'pose it leaves me with a reason to return...as though the women weren't reason enough!

Are you so sure ....

...you want one of these on the line?

For a Great White to breach the water is extremely rare! Excellent pics!!!

Sorry Rick... had to remove the whale blubber. You know I love your pics, but that one could sink the forum. Don't be mad at me...

Carl

"Sink" was just a play on words.

If you Fed-Ex her over here, I'm gonna tell everyone that the best Voice Alarm product on the market has a recall!!

I remember seeing Seal Island off the coast of South Africa on a tour boat ride in the Summer of 2000. There were a lot of seals on the rocks and we were told sharks there are the only ones known to jump out of the water and like to hang around the island. We didn't see any sharks, but I wish we had.

Anyways, the MTV show Wild Boys visited the area and put a crude form of a seal out of foam on a line hanging off their boat. Sure enough, several great whites were jumping out of the water taking bites out of it.

After reading this thread, I'm sure you could easily catch a shark like that in South Africa. Couldn't you use a spear and shoot the shark in mid-air with a 55 gallon drum attached to the other end? If you really don't want to wait for the shark to get tired, I'm sure you could shoot it with a .45 as it's in the air