How to Catch a Shark Off the Beach in North Carolina
During an evening walk to watch the sunset, out on the west-end of Oak Island, my wife and I saw a group of young fisherman that had a kayak and were attempting to fish for a shark off the beach.
Oak Island is a cigar-shaped barrier island and the west-end is the confluence of the Atlantic Ocean, the Lockwoods Folly River, and Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. During the tide changes, the water gets pretty churned up as the ocean flows into and out of the Intracoastal Waterway.
I'll try to outline the basic steps for catching a shark off the beach, well, at least how I saw those fisherman doing it:
Find a really big fish head, one about the size of a human head.
Dust off your tuna-fishing boat rod and reel and make sure it has fresh line (at least 60-pound test).
Take a 6-foot long thick metal rod and pound it into the sand about 10 yards above the high water mark.
Slide a PVC plastic sand-spike rod-holder over the metal spike. The butt-end of the rod will be inserted into the top of the sand-spike.
After attaching an 18/0 shark rig, thread the massive hook several times through the fish head.
Since it would be difficult to cast that monstrous fish head any great distance, use the kayak to tow the fish head about 100 yards off shore and drop the fish head into the ocean.
Now just paddle back to shore, have a beer, and wait for a shark bite.
After setting the hook, hold on tight and enjoy the ride!
Truth be told, we didn't see them catch a shark, but they claimed that there are many sharks in the 5 to 7 foot range out in those waters.
However, I did see a 2-foot long sand shark that was flailing in the surf. Some gentleman picked it up and there was a young kid who was eager to hold it.
All in all, it was a beautiful sunset with some off-shore rain and lightning out in the distance!
Follow me @cognoscere
Stop staring at me!
You can see the rod holder setup and the two kayakers paddling out with the fish head in tow.
Sharks are pretty cool looking, especially up close and personal.
Some off-shore rain, out closer to the next barrier island called Holden Beach.
My first panorama capture with my Sony RX100 V.
That was a scary looking cloud formation, and there were several lightening strikes, but the fisherman weren't budging.
Returning to shore after the fish head drop.
If you look closely, you can see the series of tiny pores behind the sand shark's eyes. They are called Lorenzini sense organs which help the shark to detect electric and magnetic fields and also temperature gradients.
All images @cognoscere and taken on Wednesday 07/05/2017 on the beach in Oak Island, North Carolina (Sony RX100 V)
nice post!
I recently caught a few sand sharks in the Chesapeake bay area!
and yep that's how u catch them, except I fished off a pier, and those hunting hours make a huge difference, 7pm-10pm & 5:30am-8:30am
for those of you seriously considering this make sure you have a steel leader, a strong hook, and i'd recommend 60lb braid not filament.
for bait whatever smells fishing and bloody, but also consider using some eel as well, softer fish bait is great for sharks but unfortunately crabs as well, crabs can devour your bait so using eel at the same time gives u a great advantage because of the eel's scent and tough skin/meat that crabs can't easily consume
Thanks for the informative reply @parker.hammer!!!
I actually got to touch inside the sand shark's mouth and there were no sharp teeth, only a rough texture. But, if you hooked into another shark that had a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth, I'm sure you'd be glad you had that steel leader!
Also, if you rub the sand shark in the direction from head-to-tail the skin is buttery smooth. But it you rub it from tail-to-head it's very coarse and feels kind of like, well, sand-paper.
Followed.
that's very kool! I knew their skin was sand papery but didn't know it could be smooth rubbing the opposite way, makes sense though!
Must not have been sand shark then.
The scary looking clouds are making the mission seem much more intense :D
Yeah, we kept debating whether to stay or go. There were lightning strikes in the distance over the next island, and the clouds were starting to circle around us.
You can at least say it was worth waiting for
So was the little fish shark that washed ashore alive? I really like the upclose pic where you can see those pores. The colors are stunning.
Yeah, it was, but it had been caught earlier and released, so it was having a little trouble recovering.
The little kid got to wade in waist-high and toss the shark deeper into the ocean. It was definitely struggling in the shallow surf.
Ah, gotcha. Did it swim away like a happy shark?
It was hard to tell, as the kid lobbed it out into the surf. I stayed quite a bit longer, until after the sun went down, and I never saw the sand shark wash up to shore again. So, hopefully it was ok.
That's good :)
They can be pretty resilient
What is that in the first picture! It looks quite creepy man.
That's pretty awesome - catching shark in NC. I would not want to swim at that beach!
I was thinking the same thing. Most of the fisherman seemed quite comfortable with wading into the surf. And I guess statistically it's unlikely that you'd get attacked.
But, then again, the famous tagged great white shark "Mary Lee" has been spotted off of Oak Island and Holden Beach in the past:
https://www.facebook.com/Oakislandbeach/posts/523372177751239
Yeah sounds scary! Thanks for sharing! Have a great evening @cognoscere
it will more adventurous then i see from here reading your post.
When I lived near wrightsville beach, I used to be able to find shark teeth all the time
Hi shark friend, are you ok out of water. from doge friend ^^
Yup, it's usually when I stay under water for too long that I seem to have trouble breathing 😜
No gills?
These guys have crazy entertainment. Sometimes when I fished out of shore in my kayak I pulled out half of the fish body. It looked terrible and I would not like to catch a beast that did it.
Nice. Could the fish head drops be done with a drone?