Heading out to padre island area goin after shark. Goin be fishin bob hall pretty hard, and camp on the beach next to it. might hit the causeway, and do a little bay fishing at one point or another. Would like to know if anyone knows were they might be thick? Bait advice?

It's still a little cool for masses of sharks but your best bet is in the surf way down south. Bob Hall will get you deep enough. If you'll be there in March, you'll find alot of BUs in the deep cuts if you can't find the shark.

My brother (stinkb8 on TFF) has formed the beginnings of a shark crew, hopefully we are going to start going more routinely. I know hes planning of a trip in march and I think one in April. I'm planning a week n' a half to two week trip in early May. All hard fishing for shark. Ive learned lot off of www.Tx-sharkfishing.com. Shouldn't be too long before were pulling in trophy shark. Still a lot of first hand learning by trial and error. Any advice is welcome.

Tx-sh.com is a good site. Some basic information:
Blacktips/Spinners are spawning shallow in late April into May along the surf. Good time to catch and release large female spawning Blackies/Spinners.
Shrimp season is closed May 15th-July 15th, that window does concentrate the sharks a bit more to the beach/surf areas. After July 15th many shrimpers drag close in to the beach and many sharks will follow the shrimp boats and eat the displaced fish and cull off shore, so you may see less shark action in the actual surf areas early in the shrimp season. Once the shrimpers move off shore later in the summer/early fall shark numbers increase along the surf areas.
Hope this helps a bit in planning. Good luck.

Fish just like you would do for trophy blue cats in freshwater, except use some wire or 200# flurocarbon leaders. Big Bloody baits, I like cut jack the best, or big chunks of stingarees, if you are after big shark, ten pounds of bait isn't too much - whiting are good baits, big fresh horse mullet - get baits beyond third bar - off the pier you will already be there - the fresher the bait the better -

Initial runs on 400+ fish can be 300 yards or better depending on your gear, tail whips are what cut you off when they get way out there.

Extremecoast.com is another great site for shark fishing info. I just purchased my first 9/0 penn senator and filled it up with power pro braid 100lb. I am planning a trip in april also. We are going to Big shell. Good luck!

Thanks for that TX.sharkfishing website. Ive been looking for something like that for awhile, it's got a lot of good stuff

Poolio- BUs?

Bunda-pm sent

Everyone- thank yall for the info ill let yall know how we do,

We'll be fishin with a 9/0 & a 6/0 penn w/ 75lb braid, several 4/0 penn's sum w/ 30lb mono other w/ 75 braid, and like 10-15 3/0 penn's (or its equal) most strung with 75lb braid.

Another good site is SharksOnTheSand.com

Pier was closed first night, fished the surf didn't catch anything worth mentioning. Start of second night... We have about 15 live whiting, dead mullet shrimp and squid for bait.

I've caught a couple of hammerheads in the mansfield cut. Thats up on the northern part of SPI Jetties. Used mullet cut in half and caught them off the jetties too. I don't know how it is during this time of year. My catches were in the summer. Good luck.

Go down past MM 15 I like anything past 20, i prefer whole Bull nose stingray. 3 hook setup. On a 12-16 foot leader w/ a bobler(i use a boat fender ball) yak it out about 300-400 yds out. Hang on,

Read the Report's at ExtremeCoast.com

Between the weather and red tide the fishing was not worth the trip. Cleaned up on whiting off of bob hall last night.

Dont know the name of the area, but we fished the channel other side of the road from crab man. We couldn't lose shrimp. Every one we talked to fishing report was the same. Had about 25 rods out but still no fish.

We would of done better if we had bought live shrimp but we don't have an aerator so we didnt waste money on them. Hopefully well do better when we go back in march.

The online shark fishing guide are available which provides a condensed base of the best practices to get a new shark fisherman catching 5 to 7 foot sharks off the beach. It all includes the tricks and tips of catching the shark.