I posted this as a reply on another thread but I think it will be better seen here so I'm reposting it:

Hi- I'm new to this forum, but I have been reading over the posts for the last few days and it looks like a cool place, somewhere I can learn a lot, which is mostly why I joined. My name is daniel and I'm a senior at UT Austin. I'm not new to fishing, but I'm just getting in to surf fishing, and looking forward to doing it a lot.

I'm going to try for sharks this saturday in Port A, and I think I have all the gear I need...2 heavy action rods, 40lb line, 80lb mono shock leaders (20' long), and 7' 400lb aircraft cable leaders with a 11/0 hook at the bottom and 10/0 hook strung above it. Anything I'm missing?

I was wondering, does anyone know of a place down there were I can buy ray or bonita, or do I have to catch it? Any recommendations for buying/catching are appreciated.

Also, I was wondering if anyone has a special way of getting a big hunk of bait like that out to the third gut (I'm guessing 8 oz-1.5 lb is enough)? I have a large 3-man balloon launcher that I'm going to try, and i've heard of using a kayak, but don't have the resources for that. Bringing some regular sized balloons, too in case the wind is blowing from the north, as I've heard that works.

sorry for the long post, but I could use all the help I can get, thanks

above the cable u might wanna stitch out the 80lb mono with 300# mono or more so you dont get tail whiped by the shark. are your weights spider weights? becuase if they arnt and if its rough you bait will end up on shore. i havent ever fished port A so i dont know where 2 get bait but in matagorda a place sometimes sells sting rays. good luck

they're not spider weights, they're the flat pyramid shaped weights. I have used them before and didn't seem to have any problems with bait coming in. That was in florida though.

for the 300# mono how long a length are you suggesting? That's gonna be too thick a knot to go into the top eye so I'm guessing not very long