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 ...

Ya it's a Mako..


Beautiful shark.

SPB,

You can think that Bull sharks don't come into the bay system in SPI, but they do.

I know Port Mansfield is up the coast a little ways, but SPI isn't any different than any other coastal area. While in Port Mansfield I have seen 5'-7' Bulls in 2' of water cruising.

I have seen the same thing in Port Aransas around East Flats.

I have been a victim of Bull Sharks stealing my stringer and scaring the **** out of me in West Matagorda.

They are there and with the Bull Sharks reputation....eventually someone will get hit.

Thankfully, there is enough food in our area bay systems and surf that Bull sharks haven't resorted to eating humans yet. That is the problem in Brazil...no food and murky water.

I, too, was like you..."Sharks, there aren't any sharks here. If there are sharks they won't bother me though."

That was until I had one sneak up behind on a shallow flat in West Matagorda last year and blow up on my stringer less than 5 ft. behind me. Also, I have had them follow me around while I had an empty stringer. It is quite unnerving to be in chest deep water with 5'-6' Bull shark following you like a lost dog just waiting for you to catch a fish.

None of this stops me from wade fishing the surf or the bays, but a person should proceed with a little caution.

We used to catch bulls at the Coast Guard Station and under the Causeway but you do not see large sharks in the deep bay. I didn't say any sharks, I said large sharks. Crusing down the ICW, but not in the flats or deep bay.

Aso, the sharks here aren't gonna bite you..

Not saying they won't ever take someones leg.. but they really don't bother people.. EVER!

The flats fishermen bring in blacks and lemons from the deep bay to The Sea Ranch all the time, sometimes bulls, little ones.

Sharks just don't bite people down here.. Course now that I say that some kid is going to lose an arm tomorrow. That's life tho.

Like I said we got nice sharks down here.. If you can say such a thing.

Sides the episode on shark week I saw about the Brazil killings was in part do to no fish and the fact that a river emptied into the ocean that carried waste from a slaughter house from upsteam. Ha.. That might be a problem!!

I am trying to get an underwater container for my Rebel camera and if I do I will take lots of pics of our SPI friendy sharks for people. Then again.. if I die.. well.. talk about proven wrong!

Sharks down here go Texas Hostpitality, you know how it goes!


-Z-

SPB,

I haven't seen any of the large sharks like Mako or Tigers. But, a 5'-6' Bull shark looks awfully big to me when he is within arms length of me eyeing my stringer! LOL

SPB;

What's the boat shark fishing like there in SPI around the first to second week of July?

The kids and I are planning a trip that should start off somewhere around Galveston and end somewhere near SPI.