Shark and Ray Fishing
Sharks could nearly be found anywhere and, although once regarded as an irritation, they are now regarded as a prime sport fish.
Apart from the publicity the landing of a great white used to receive, the jaw, or even individual teeth, was sought after as collectors items and fetched good prices.
Today fishing for the great white is prohibited by law. As far as present-day sport fishing is concerned, shark fishing has taken the pressure off edible rock, surf and near shore species. In addition, instead of brining sharks to the weigh-in at the end of a day's fishing, tag-and-release angling competitions are used to test the skill and ability of competitive anglers without harming the population size of these fish, which produce very few young each year. Although many species of sharks are edible not many anglers take shark meat home for the table. In actual fact the meat is quite tasty but it is necessary to clean the shark as soon as it is landed. To do this, remove the head and tail and cut out the stomach and intestines. Keep the fillet cool in clean sea water as this prevents an ammonia odour from developing, which happen when the shark is left in the sun. When fresh and fried in butter, it is difficult to distinguish shark meat from kingklip.
If you fish for sharks for the pure pleasure of hooking and landing a string fighting fish, be sure to release your catch without harming it. By releasing it you will play an important role in protecting sharks from over-exploitation.
Shark fishing tackle
The tackle required to do battle with these large fighting fish does not differ to any great extend from the tackle that is normally used from the beach. A 4 to 4,5 m beach rod with heavy tip to cast the larger baits, and reel with line capacity of 250 to 300 m is perfectly adequate. When fishing from the rocks the rod should be shorter. The terminal rig you choose depends on the breaking strain of the main line. If you are fishing for sharks with light line on a beach rod, the line can very easily break when you put power into casting heavy bait and sinker. By using a leader large bait can be cast without the main line breaking.
When you fish for sharks you have to use a steel-wire trace. There are many factors that influence the diameter of breaking strain of the wire trace, and one of those factors is how ambitious you feel, how big a bait you wish to fish with and how far you have to cast.
Boat fishermen have a advantage over shore anglers in that they can swim a live bait such as a small shark, a shad or even a small kob. The smaller live baits are normally kept at the required depth by using a float or topbung but on larger shark baits a balloon is used, tied to the main line.
Live baits are also relatively simple to swim from rocks or headland where the water is deep. Some anglers swim live bait through the surf by wading out as far as possible before casting or letting it swim out in a rip current. You need to use a large hook for shark fishing as the baits you use are normally big. Make sure that the tip of the hook is not hidden by the bait and that it is as sharp as possible.
Remember to check your knots as you may have to wait quite a while for a bite, and to hook a large fish only to lose it as result of poor tackle preparation is, to say the least, most frustrating.
Whether you fish from the boat or from the shore, creating chum slick is certain to improve your chances of hooking a shark. Obviously fishing conditions must be suitable, with the wind not too strong and the sea bring calm enough to establish a well-defined slick. The oily slick is caused by natural oil in the pieces of fish used as chum, and by adding fresh pieces every now and then the chum slick will attract and hold an entire shoal and often put them into feeding frenzy.
Blacktip Shark
They are very exciting to catch as they take off at great speed on the first run, sometimes leaping clear of the water. They can be caught on live or dead bait and are good eating.
Copper Shark
Copper sharks swim close to the bottom, where they fees on slow-swimming fish like small sharks, skates, sole and squid. Any fish bait or strip of squid is suitable as bait.
Spotted Gully Shark
Of all the strong fighting sharks the spotted gully shark and the hound shark are probably the two most caught. The shark will take most of the baits they happen to come across, though their natural diet is small fish, crabs and other small crustaceans.
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