Boatless Fishing Forum, Reports, Info

Was wondering how you go about landing a shark , hooked from a pier . Seems like there is only 2 choices , walk it to the beach , or hoist it up some way .

dude seriously if you have to ask you shouldnt be doing it
simple

I've seen em destroy a boat. Broke the CC so bad it had to be replaced. The only way to bring them on to a pier is to kill them. Because they don't have skeletons, the act of bringing them out of the water displaces all their internal organ's, effectively killing them. At least the larger one's. Had a guy at Anglens a few weeks ago that was going to cut one's head off to get his hook back. Needless to say I took care of it.

Smaller sharks can be hoisted up in a large bridge landing net. Then if desired, returned with minimal damage.

Thank you , Mr. Goliath Grouper , for your well thought out responce to my question . Your ability to enlighten me is astounding .

Thanks to all of you who gave me an honest answer . I see all these posta , about sharking from a pier , and couldn't see a way to catch and release a big fish , without killing it either . I didn't know if you were geting them to the pier , and then cuting them free in some way . I saw a group in Panama City climb down the pilings of the pier , tail rope the fish , hoist it up, remove the hook , and then throw it off the pier . I didn't think that this would have been viewed as an acceptable practice by this forums standards . Thanks to all .....PS I only fish from the beach .

What you are seeing with the jumbo sharks caught from the pier area released by cutting the line. No one here hoists a 10 foot hammer head up onto the pier. Not acceptable practice in these parts, it may fly in BFE up north somewhere but not down here.

Thanks Goliath , That's all I wanted to know .

oh.. and just an fyi, Goliath Grouper is not their username.. it is a designation for how many posts they have. their username is just above that in the top left hand corner.

good luck with the sharks!

Charles

Thanks Charles I will never understand why that concept is so hard to grasp. I mean your name appears the same way as others does. That being said any shark over 50 lbs that is not being harvested should be beached or cut lose. Landing nets and sharks don't mix well.

gruntking wrote:dude seriously if you have to ask you shouldnt be doing it
simple

Ease down with the sarcasm, no question is stupid. He at least asked to get and understanding and I am glad he took the time to ask before attempting to bring a large shark up.

bait shooter wrote:Was wondering how you go about landing a shark , hooked from a pier . Seems like there is only 2 choices , walk it to the beach , or hoist it up some way .

ima tell you something. some piers dont even allow ppl to shark fish. most i think except inlet piers or walkways that are over jetty's. you can beach them in that case but like a pier off of a beach in a city. oh no not good to land them. but cutting the line is certainly not the best thing to do either because the fish trail's more line behind it. but you can use short steel leader like 3 foot and then connect it to one long leader(about 80lb mono) that is just longer then the height of the pier(if the pier is 15' then go with 20 feet of mono leader). after you bring it in close.... just hand the rod over to someone and you grab the mono leader so it will pop from the steel cable or wire. that leaves the fish with no line behind it, just the steel.

Heah , that's more aloing the lines of what I had been thinking . I don't fish from piers , but had just wondered what everyone else had thought about it .

when the tips are thick I have tried several ways, the short wire to mono( 100 to 150 lb ) leader 5 feet or so to some 60 to 80 shock leader long enough to reach the pier rail which allows me to do a wrap and break the leader (usually at the wire mono albright knot )

I also tried a 8/0 circle that BPS sells that would break or straiten when fish is up and down and leader is pulled ... last thing I am trying ( and I am still fine tuning this idea)

is to use a solid ring to a split ring to the circle hook.... when pulled steady and when the fish is up and down the split ring will fail and release the fish with only the hook... I think the ring I am trying is around 60 lb class... all of this is of course from, pier , bridge, etc not beach.

Thanks for the tip , Rick . That split ring idea sounds good , to me . Larry

My dumb self had to walk 2 of the bull reds I caught off the Mexico Beach pier. Oh, and a 3 foot blacktip. I',m so used to catching palm sized fish and a mac here and there, didnt think of buying a bridge net. Thank God some guy walked up, asked if he could fish near me. When I turned and saw his pier net I said "Dude, not only that but you can have MY spot, I'll fish next to YOU! If you dont have a pier net, make friends QUICK with someone because "someone" is going to have to watch your gear while YOU walk the pier with a fish

All my best

Jay

I probably wouldn't even be able to hoist anything over a yard long up a pier even in a net, after suffering a horrible shoulder spasm last February which kept me out of action for months it is doubtful for me, my back is also not in very good condition at all and I'm only 20, not good if you have to walk it down, but do be sure you make that friend on the pier for the day, good luck.

these are for divers and can be found at most dive shops , but we have done a mod to the ones we have and have put 100 lb mono for a pull cord , to accept o rings around the head of it when the line os in the jaw of it and the o ring in place slide it down the line and pull and it will cut the line and light cables , works great

thats the best one ive heard

The only problem with this being the best, most informative site on the web for FL is that I will have no excuse for ignorant fishing mistakes. Seriously though, old pros being willing to answer such questions in detail is just one of the things that makes BF great. I just keep on learning. Thanks guys for the great info and pics.

Chris


"I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy." Groucho Marx

BoatlessFisherman wrote:

gruntking wrote:dude seriously if you have to ask you shouldnt be doing it
simple

Ease down with the sarcasm, no question is stupid. He at least asked to get and understanding and I am glad he took the time to ask before attempting to bring a large shark up.

the pier that i fish does not allow sharkfishing but we still do it. when the tippys are running i fish a fathom 30 filled with 25 or 30lb suffix superior, with about a 25ft bimini to a 50lb swivel and about a foot and half of #6 wire. i fish 6/0 mustad ultra points and when theyre done i just pull up on the bimini wrapped around my hand and the hook usually bends straight. usually around 6ft tippys i catch with this. for the bigger sharks i break them off on the pilings