Hey guys,
I was wondering about a set up for sharks. I have a 10ft spinning casting rod that I am planning on fishing the piers w/ for whatever. I am planning on putting down a base of 30lb mono on the base and 30 lb braided on to it to cast. Could I use this same setup for sharks? Do I need to use a wire leader? If so what size?
And do you rig it for bottom fishing or float? How do you rig for a shark?

Thanks for everything Guys!!
Randall

definatly a yes on the steel leader in fact about a 2 to 3 foot long one works the best with a spider freelining on your main line{freelining the spider weight allows for a better hook set} whiting, stingrays, ladyfish ,large croker, big cut mullett, and sand trought are all good shark bait. good luck hope this helped at least a little, dont catch them all i dont get to go fishing for a while

I have seen shark fisherman on piers all around the states that have saltwater. One word of advice I could give you is to have a steel leader at least a foot longer than the shark you may catch. The tail rasping back on forth on mono will weaken it considerably.
New way of pier fishing for me was seen in North Carolina. These fellows used 10-14' rods, 20lb mono and 4oz sand sinkers (the ones with the copper wires you bend out that grab the sand like an anchor). They would cast this sinker a long long way out off the end of the pier, tie the rod to the rail and set the anchor/sinker. Then they rigged up their heavy duty 6-8' rods with a steel leader and hook. Using live pins, croaker etc., they put a rubber ban about 4 feet from the bait on the heavy rig and attach a metal snap ring to the rubber band. The next step was to attach the ring over the long (anchored) line. They just fed the line on the heavy rig out till the ring, sliding down the anchor line, was just into the water. Long story short. It was using a trolly like systen to get the heavy stuff out a lot farther than they could cast them. Shark or king hit, rubber band breaks and the fight is on.

SWEET!! Thanks Guys.
What pound steel leader would I need though. Would the 30 lb braided line do for the fight w/ teh steel leader on it?

Randall

i have always used berkley nylon coated steel at 60 lb its great stuff biggest shark is a 5 ft bull on the rig above described, and the 30 lb braid should be fine.
good luck

Cool, thanks man. I appritiate it.
Now to only worry about the tropical storm Chris.

Randall

you know thats not a bad idea.......light gear is genraly easier to cast anyway.....hmmmm...

If you dont use wire you will be re rerigging all day and never see a fish use solid wire its harder to rig than seven stran but sharks will chew right trough the seven stran I make a machine that makes doing a haywire twist a snap And if you use a Turbo rattler you will catch a lot more sharks and kings but again I say use solid wire.

Cool, I will try to find that.
Thank You

Randall

RandallW20 Just look here www.turborattler.com

i use about 6 ft of 480# cable and 6ft of 550# mono. but will make a few 900# cable leaders for my penn 9/0. i dont use long rods. I have short boat rods and just yak my bait. but thats usually from the beach. I havent tried doing if from a peir yet. I use 30 # big game and 50# big game. but will proablly swithc out with 65# adn 80# power pro. i had a friend last night almost get spooled with 50# line.

Anyone need a Penn Senator 10/0? Used to use it off piers in S Alabama and N. Fla. St Croix 130 lb class boat style rod.'We used tiller cable and hardware for leaders at least twice the length of the rod. Technology has replaced Dacron line with mono but dacron still has it's place, it does take rubbing along the bottom better.We floated these rigs out on the current from piers Dauphin Island Ala/Navarre Fla)using toy baloons tethered to the bait using 12 inches of mono frayed to almost breaking point. Once the current carried the bait out far enough we jerked the line HARD and the frayed mono broke and let the heavy bait (Jack Crevalle, bonito, large mullet.)settle to the bottom.
P.S. we were after 250-450 lb bulls.
RandallW20,
Obviously you don't want to try this w/ spinning gear. Next question is, what kind of gear do you plan to use?

how much do you want for the 10/0?

Well, I have a 10ft (either med/heavy or heavy) spinning rod w/ 30lb braid and mono base wrap that I bought to use for general jetty and pier fishing. I was just hopeing that I could rig up to catch a shark of some kind and size.

Randall

Thats big enough for smaller sharks, but eventualy its going to be to small. Youll be able to play, but to get into the big boys youll need the heavier gear.

Penn levelwinds are good cheap alternatives. the 309 can be had on ebay for 40<. The senator is the next step up on HD, or the GTI series for casting. A brand new 6/0 is about 80 or so I think? the 525 is a better caster, but the senator is bigger.