I was reading another thread about fellow TFFer's catching sharks near swimmers and it made me laugh..

Many years ago one of my favorite things to do was to catch sharks from the beach off our condo during high tourist season on South Padre Island.

So at 8pm or after the last few swimmers were out of the water we would jetski out our shark baits. Now, in my late teen years my shark setups were 9/0's on Ocean Masters and we would usually have 4 setups spaced with in 50 yards.

Now...

When tourists see your heavy duty tackle they often giggle. Some even crack jokes, "That's a big reel son, whatcha gonna catch? Jaws?" Har Har fun and games..

However, WHEN, not if, but when you catch a shark and beach it those same people come running down from their condo patios where they have been watching you and marvel at it.. That's when the psychological warfare starts.

First are the pictures. Then come the questions? What kind? How much does it weight, is it a nice shark, as in friendly. Can you eat em? What's it doing here? Ha, but my favorite is when someone asks are there more sharks?

That's when I just make up BS, I tell 'em the biggest whoppers about man eaters and giant tigers and bull sharks cruising just a 100 yards offshore and in the guts. Lies and lies.. but to see the terror in their face.. classic..

That's a good way to fill swimming pools the next day because most won't go in past knee deep. Not after my stories of 800 pound sharks lurking in the sandbar guts..

HA HA HA!


Also, don't step on my sand castles either..

1. Because they took me hours and hours to build
2. Because I bury jellyfish and man o' wars in them, so if you do step on it.. well.... I will get the last laugh..


-Z-

Now that even beats my story of finding a big toe in the belly of a shark that I caught on the beach.

I kept the shark size to about 3 feet and usually steer the conversation towards the strangest thing I have ever found when cleaning a shark, that's when I break out the story about the big toe. And of course I was fishing just a few hundred yards up yonder on the beach when I caught it too

lol genius...and more genius

You guys are a trip!

ima have to tell them city folk some shark stories when im down in galveston now. it always seems to slip my mind when im there. as brown as galveston water is, it'll make em mess their pants

you guys are pure evil..... muhahahahahaha! I LOVE IT!

been makin tourist run for their mama since i was born. from day 1 i had a shark story. in all seriousness, that would be cool if i did that from day 1

FYI tourists..

Swimming the jetties at night is not a steller idea.. If you don't see the locals doing it, I don't know why you think it should be done then..


but I ain't gonna stop you..


Because I am def. not going to pass up a good old fashion shark attack if there is one and you know I always got my camera ready so it's going on YouTube..



-z-

high quality entertainment there i tell ya what

My son lives in Iowa, and every year he takes pictures home from our latest fishing trip and makes up all these wild stories about how the sharks did this or that.

He has a captive audiance too, not many Iowans have ever been shark fishing, and he likes calling me and telling me how gullible they all are

Its funny you get tired of tell the beach walker or kids in the water to stay clear of your lines. Then you pull up a 4ft shark. Man I didnt know ther were sharks out there.???

DO you live in SPI or are you a visitor also? When you talked about your condo it kinda threw me off. Do you live in this condo or is it a summer home/rental. If so, then you are a tourist too.

I have lived in Corpus Christi about 20 yrs, am 25 now, and have actually lived on the island for about 5 yrs or so. When I am not fishing I am surfing, so I know a great deal about the waters of our area.

Our waters, and the entire gulf for this matter, are teaming with sharks. Honestly, more shark attacks happen in the gulf each year than like the rest of the worlds beach locations combined. However, people dont realize this because most species around here are rather small and its the white sharks and tigers, that frequent more distant waters, that grab all the headlines. Getting chomped in two sticks in the mind more than loseing a toe. But as far as numbers, we have many sharks and much more attacks than areas such as California, Australia, or Africa.

However, there is one shark that frequents TX waters that is a complete nightmare. The Bullshark!! Bullsharks have more testosterone than any other animal. They are the pitbull of the sea. Unfortunatly, they like to swim in shallow waters where bathers often swim. Though they aren't as big as a white or tiger, they do grow to man eating size at 8 to 12 feet. This is the shark that is killing and mameing many people in Brazil, causing a national dealima, though the reason this is happening is because of people. While surfing, or wading, this is the one shark that I worry about. Though they are usually not big enough to inflict massive damage with one bite, they are known to keep coming back and attacking. There is a real good Discovery Episode about them in Brazil.

As I said, Bulls like shallow water, many PINS surf fishing guides will set a rod up in the first gut; and they do catch! Even more fascintating is that they can live in fresh water just as well as salt. In Africa, they are called the Zambezzie Shark because of their presence in the Zambezzie River. I am waiting for one to swim into the nueces and be spotted now that the Parckery channel connects bays to surf. I have alot of respect for this shark.

Now must of our shark are small like the blacktip but we occasionally see larger species such as Mako and Tiger. This is not vary common but a few years back a fisherman got a 9 ft Tiger from BobHall Pier while I was surfing, Scary! Tigers are very nasty and thank god we dont have alot of them.

Sharks are a fact of life in TX waters and if you are in or around enough you will have encounters though most dont get ugly. You are not bull #@*#@ing when you tell people about all the sharks in he water, though things dont usually turn unpleasant.

It is fun to scare dummys though and Im always down to keep dumbos out of the area.

Dang LooptyLoop, I sure am glad I never read that post when I was a kid. We used to swim out from the beach untill we found a sand bar shallow enough to wade around on.
I suppose trying to fish off your surf board would not be a wise thing to do. I was thinking about renting one last summer at P.A. and taking my fly rod with me.
What the heck was I thinking.

Born and raised in South Padre.

Moved to Dallas to attend college.



-Z-

GALVESTON, TX
While the ocean vessel 'Dawn Raider' was commercial fishing shrimp, this Great White was hooked in the mouth but only resisted slightly for 15 minutes before it came up alongside the boat to have a look; long enough for one of the crew members to slip a rope a round it's tail !!! 'And that's when the **** hit the fan!!




So much for swimming in the Galveston's warm waters this year.


.. The Shark took off towing the 42 foot fishing boat backwards through the water at about 7 Knots. Just like in JAWS, the boat was taking on water over the stern and the crew watched in horror as the shark would actually jump completely out of the water at times. This went on for an hour before the shark finally drowned. She weighed in at 1035 LBS. It is suspected she followed a weak El Nino current into local waters in search of food. Although mid 60 degree water is considered ideal for these sharks, the larger ones can tolerate water in the low 50s.

Ha.. that shark was caught in N.S. still tho.. amazing..

If you want to be ripped apart by a shark in TX you need to hang around P.O.C. or the North Jetties after night..

If you want to hunt BIG sharks then you need to hit a few rigs at night or head south down the border into Mexican waters.

The Tequila rig is a shark magnet. I am just glad we don't have many white tips here..

Now if you go 200-300 miles offshore you can find them.

.. if you have ever fished off Tampico, in Mexico well there you can run into big Crocs and Sharks!


-Z-

About two yrs ago a 9 foot Mako shark beached itself in CC bay, right in front of the college in this little jetty inclosed area that people like to splash around in.

It gathered tons of local attention and the biologist at the college had a field day. you can probably still see pic on the internet off the callertimes.com web site. It will be mounted in the college some day.

It was said that the shark was sick and died of some sort of disease. It would have had to do alot of zigging and zagging to end up there.

Since the opening of the packery channel, I have seen a huge influx of shark in our bays. Mostly small blacktips but occasionally something bigger. A large hammerhead was caught at oso brigde, a favorite local wade spot. Also, we had a large Bull crashing into bait fish between us and the shoreline while wading an area of Alazan bay about two yrs ago.

However, I am still more worried about stingrays!

Stingrays don't bother me.. I am loud and splash around like a crazy person when I am in the water..


What I hate are sneaky jellyfish!


Everytime I turn around they are hitting me in the privates or slappin me in the back. Now I could.. could.. wear a shirt or at least something other than soccer shorts to wade in but dang it! They feel good!


-Z-

Thats kinda gross to think about

i agree with ya, but dadgum, put some clothes on

Another thing, I guess your not fishing when you talk about being load and splashing. What do you do when your fishing and having to be still and quiet?

They say that you are supposed to do the "sting ray shuffle," this is were you slide your feet along the bottom without taking them off the ground. The rays feel your vibrations on the floor and usually move, in case they dont, you slide into them instead of stepping down on them and drawing a strike. However, this tactic doesnt make you feel comfortable when you are surrounded by stingrays. One spot that I love to wade in is Shamrock Cove. During certain times of year you can see them everywhere in the clear water. When I lived on Oso bay, I like to fish the mudflats for tailing reds. However the water is very murkt due to the muddy bottom. On the few occasions that I fished with live shrimp back there, you would catch a stingray about everyother cast. Its scary to be standing 100's of yds out in water that full of rays.

By the way, by being loud and splashing, you are probably increasing the likelyhood that you will get hit. Fish cant hear for one, and all of your splashing is done on the surface, attracting sharks, and doing nothing to detere rays which feel floor fibrations. The jumping around may even cause you to come down on one.

As for the jelly fish thing, at least jellys are not always heavy in the water. Though when they are it can be hell. Usually when the surf is good, they cover every square inch of the water making things awefull.

I have been fishing the LLM for 20+ years.. Doesn't matter if you are loud or not when fishing the bay or flats

First off you are NOT going to find many large sharks in my part of the bay, Padre sharks cruise the beach shoreline. Secondly, the sharks in South TX don't bother people they might steal your stringer but they aren't taking a bite outta your leg. We used to swim the jetties back in the early 90's sharks were never a problem. Not like in Florida. We got nice sharks here.

The reason I do get in and spash around and make a big commotion in the water is to create a muddy wonderland for fish. After I am done making a nice 20-30 foot sandy, murky, churned up water spot, I will drift or pole back a few yards in the boat and fish the area I just made. FISH love that!

All you have to do after that is throw your bait in the middle and them rip it outta there.

This isn't the Bahama's were you need to sneak up on bone fish. My motto is draw attention to yourself the then sit back and fish that area as the fish go to investigate.


-Z-

Dude , are you kidding me. That was not a very smart, logical, or curtious thing to say. If you are fishing in the flats, you need to be very quite. Ive seen schools of redfish spooked out by a kyak paddleing by. Shallow feeding trout are the same way. When fishing skinny water during the summer you even need to downsize lures to decreas your splash and comotion in the water.

Your churning up the mud is also a good way to get rays to move in behind you. If you bring in anything it will be them or if your lucky a flounder.

Just because there are not bonefish doesnt mean that you dont have to be tactical while fishing here. This is one of the best bay fishing areas in the world and a big trout, red, snook, or any other game fish will spook if you make a comotion like you are talking about.

Hey look, to each his own, your approach is not one that I would ever dream of using and seems kinda comical, just dont do it around me. Other than that, different strokes for different folks.

Man..

If I said one thing you would surely.. surely.. say another..

Tell ya what..

Come down and fish TIFT, Texas International Fishing Tourny, this year, if you do that I will fish the Bay Division instead of the offshore..

Then we can see what's what..



-Z-

Just FYI, that last picture - while impressive in itself - is not, repeat NOT a shark. Some sort of dolphin, and I would guess a bottlenose from the shape of the dorsal fin & the silhouette of the snout.

Still would give me a sphincter-loosening scare if that popped up in the water next to me!

PS - isn't that a mako shark in the top pics? Doesn't look like a white to me ...