Why kill them for just doing what sharks do?

in tx your only allow one shark per day, some are protected.

This

Bull sharks kill a lot of breeder size red drum in the NC sounds but we don't go killing them. I'd say they are much more of a threat to humans than hammerheads are on the average.

Same reason ya gotta kill all the snakes you can find....they're sceery

Compelling.

I wanna catch a salmon shark

I came to an understanding with sharks some time ago, they don't piss in my toilet and I don't swim in their ocean...seems to be working so far.

But if you feel you must then that is your look out.

Cut the line on the Tarpon ? let the fish get away if you're concerned about the shark killing it , nah , that wouldn't get the good video footage they wanted .

Are we ever going to have an intervention for jaguar?

Here's a classic.

Interesting, the way I understood it the heads of hammerheads are designed for a cruise fairly close to the bottom picking up the electromagnetic signals of prey, you wouldn’t think of them so much is something that chases down free swimming fish at the top.

Makes me wonder what sort of cues an exhausted stressed out and struggling tarpon might put out, it seems like the shark would have little chance of catching a healthy free-swimming tarpon.

Electromagnetic signals they pick up on are inboard/outboard engines , they're also pick up white pointy shapes floating on the surface ..

A sound philosophy!

He pretty much lost his show over this. LOL

You can thank the government and Texas for the shark problems. In 1979 I got a grant through NOAA to shark fish and around 20 years later NMFS closed commercial fishing for large coastal sharks. And now Texas has made it illegal to transport shark meat through the state without the fins still attached to Mexico. So catching black tips and spinner sharks aren't worth the effort, and the fresh shark meat market at Publix and Wind Dixie is nonexistent because of the political pressure from the dogooders. I caught a really big greater hammer head years and just the dorsal fin was worth over $250. Between the sharks and jewfish - goliath grouper you can't hardly bottom fish inshore. And the sandbars and bull sharks have made live baiting kingfish off Jupiter in the spring a shark feeding frenzy.

Sharks don't come up on land and attack people in their environment. Leave em alone. They're just doing what God made em to do.

Ron

More proof that you shouldn't believe anything you read or hear and only half of what you see.

This is what they are forced to fall back on when there ain’t engines and hooked and played out tarpons. Wouldn’t surprise me if that hammered used its vision little if at all to locate and follow that tarpon, more’n a few birds are the same way, and not just kiwis.

God put sharks in the ocean to provide nourishment for mankind. Like it or not we are at the top of the food chain.

That is Cherry Grove Inlet in North Myrtle Beach SC. We flounder fish there yearly. Bobby guy on top deck flounders as well and is a friend. Inlet is one of the smallest on east coast and you can throw a rock across in about 90% of it.

Coyotes, too.

Same reason I kill coyotes and flies and rattlers - because of what they do.

Why arrest blacks for doing what blacks do?

By God, we're firing on all cylinders today.

Sheesh. How long until we cant kill alligator gar that snap up 5 lb bass. Oh yeah, now we are allowed one a day and Rayburn and Texas rivers are full of them.

Coyotes and wolves dont attack people.

You live trap rats and mice and release them? Flies?

The Disney crew is doing well.

I like the boat in the first vid.

Hahaha. Tff. Yep, it's just natural.

Yeah, maybe but the obvious is when you are fighting a Tarpon they "flash" like crazy making them highly visible and easily mistaken as an injured fish to it's predators.
Much like the reason the Hammerhead in the video goes after the electronic signal panel, it was the easiest to catch, just like a injured fish is.............

I would be real easy to catch while wade fishing trout and reds.

Loudmouth should have had the fish in the net the first time, instead of running his cakehole.


That said, you haven't lived until you've had a huge bull shark take a big fish from you right at the boat when you're just about to lean over the gunnel to lip him.

And in shoreline waters that normally lacks the visibility of deeper water, the sharks strike at anything that moves when it can't see very well....

TFF. (I think) I remember seeing one of my buds do that at a Rolling Stones concert once a long time ago in a far away place.

It's funny, people will sit around and let their environment be filled with gar, sharks, hawks and wolves to the point they arent allowed to take home a mess of fish or quail or draw a tag more than a few times in their life, due to preservationists running our fish and game micromanagement departments.

I expect the Valley in South Texas has less than a fourth of the native white wings there was 50 years ago.
The farmers back then would burn the standing sugarcane at night in the fall after the leaves dried and before harvest to kill hundreds of thousands of blackbirds which roosted therein. Not allowed now.
Now they live by millions choking out the white wings, cleaning up the food and whitewing nests and farmers have to plant 3 times as much seed to try and get a crop up as they used to. It's pretty hard to make a go of it nowadays trying to farm in the valley because, people and govt make it so.

I didn’t know that. Damn dogooders

Fair enough, but you are taking as a given that a hammerhead perceived the world the same way we do. I would guess the hammerhead would respond the exact same way in total darkness.

When you swim in salt water you become part of the food chain.

Sharks do as nature intended them to do. They are not evil. They are not brainless killing machine. They are an important part of nature. If you want to take one for the meat and it is legal to do so, have at it. But to kill it simply to kill it simply is not right. I feel the same way about snakes, for the most part they will always get a pass from me. I watched the video the OP put up. You have a guy saying "I have to save this tarpon's life" but he wasn't willing to cut the line. If he really gave a damn about the tarpon, cut it. The fact they kept it hooked while the shark was after it shows they cared more about the video than the tarpon. The shark wasn't the bad guy in that video, the angler was if you cared about the tarpon.

How about flies and mosquitoes. They just do what nature intended them to. They arent evil. Sheesh. Insight of the decade.

Same philosophy of the preservationists in the game depts.

Sacramento Mts of SE NM have plenty of not evil coyotes and lions and probably soon to be lobos. Try to find a deer though, outside of the community city parks.

40 years ago you could archery hunt in the fall and see 20 -40 deer a day. Now if you see two or three it was a good day.

Ah, the wonders of modern wildlife "management", well, on public land anyway.

Go to private land in Texas managed completely different and still see 20-40 deer a day. I wonder why.

Cool video. Thanks for putting that up.

I don't go out of my way to kill every one of those on the planet. Do you have any idea how many different species rely on flies and mosquitoes as their food source? Like it or not we aren't the only species on the planet. Animals do as nature intends them to. What part of that is so hard to grasp? As to your video if those anglers really cared about saving that tarpon's life like they said then they would have cut the line. A healthy tarpon will out swim and out maneuver that shark. So who is really responsible for that fish getting bitten in half? Newsflash it wasn't the shark.

Tell it to the tons of trout and redfish they "harvest".

I'm almost as good a human as you. I dont go out of my to kill any of the endangered flies or mosquitoes either, if they dont get in the house or land on me while outdoors.

I wonder if you're smart enough to figure out what happens to populations of doves, ducks and quail when they are harvested by man, foxes, hawks, owls, coyotes and raccoons but the coyotes, raccoons, foxes, hawks and owls arent.

Here’s the one I was looking for. With respect to running down healthy tarpon, turns out hammerheads are built to turn on a dime relative to other sharks rather than speed, makes sense when you see how they hunt.

Someone has to post a picture of a cow killing a dandelion to explain why I kill cows. Some guys kill stuff just to show they can. Doesn't make them special; doesn't make them smart. GD

Excuse me while I hurl!!!!!! Have you always been a Texan or are you originally from NEW YORK CITY?? I kill every predator I can and will continue doing so.

Jim

This is my point. If you want to kill a legal shark for consumption or to just drive around to show it off at the local watering holes until it rots in the back of your truck, go for it.

But isn't killing a shark just to kill it, essentially poaching? (Serious question) And aren't you taking a resource away from legal shark fisherman when you do so just like the shark took that Tarpon away?

Comparing killing of sharks to a coyote is ridiculous.

The last I heard sharks don't come into a cow pasture and kill a calf.

The calf is the property of someone. The trout and redfish and flounder are the property of the people of Texas. I guess since we only eat them instead of make money selling them they dont count.

their heads allow them to be able to turn much quicker than other sharks, more maneuverable.

With that reasoning, wouldn't the sharks also be the "property" of the people of Texas? Are their any dedicated shark fisherman in Texas? (Serious question)

I’m going to have to insist that you cite a source for this.

that one gar you catch has to be reported to tp&w within 24hrs and it's about time they put regulations in, they were being way overfished. also, they put in a minimum 48 inch size limit.

Murderer.

I'm sure there are those who will say we can still help our game birds out as it's legal to hunt coins and coyotes and foxes. With the type of good guys on the fire I wonder how much longer that will remain true.

All it will eventually take is some city slicker preservationist getting a college degree and doing a study like they did with desert sand lizards to do a study saying our populations of same are declining.

You'd think there was a plan behind it if you didnt drink the PC kool-aid.

Like Texas biologists saying we have a diminishing gator gar population and people swallow that BS hook, line and sinker.

Who did the gar population studies 150 years ago? All we had them in were a few medium sized rivers.

Now, we have huge freshwater man made lakes full of the basturds, but yeah, they are in a historical decline. BS. Rayburn, T Bend, Livingston, and 50 other lakes are full of them. But hey, if you're lucky you can still catch a mess of bass to eat, if you are armed and defend yourself from those better than you who think only gars and ospreys are those that should eat them.

Hey, there are whites and crappie and carp for us, Mr. Well, for a little while, anyway.

I just did a quick google and 100 million sharks are killed every year, mostly by China for fin soup.

Well, I'm glad to hear they are good for something.

I wonder if that's better than batsoup.

Human intervention is key to leveling the playing field across species.

Amen. And the leftests are destroying that symbiotic relationship.

I'll be offshore mon-wens. we will probably catch a few sharks but turn most loose unless we decide to keep our one a day and those will be smaller ones to eat especially blacktips or spinners, they are damn good eating. Brian and a couple of my buddy's caught a nice mako last month it was tagged and released.

For cripes sake we gotta get real here.

We use to catch sharks on long line rigs by the hundreds.
The market was and is for the fins.
We'd strip the fins and cut the carcass open so they'd sink and dump them over board.

I had a pet food market for white roe Mullet (males) and they wouldn't touch those sharks, so over board they always went.

The only way you could market the shark fin's was to dry them first, I'd have fin's hanging from strings all around my back patio.
Even though the fins brought good money, they were sold by the pound and I'll tell ya right now it takes a schit load of fins to make a pound once they are dried.

They are quite comparable weight wise to dried Morel mushrooms vs fresh.

We fished the crap outta those sharks along the Florida coast through the 70's and 80's.

Florida prohibited finning in 1992, with federal law following in 2000, by requiring sharks be landed in whole condition. In 2010, the Shark Conservation Act strengthened prohibition, making it unlawful to remove fins at sea, have possession of fins aboard a fishing vessel, or transfer fins from one vessel to another at sea.
An international prohibition was adopted in 2005. There are still no international limits on shark catch that I am aware of, it's just all about slowing down the massive fin harvest.

You can still kill sharks, you just can't do it for the profit in the fin's.

I never saw a shortage of sharks in all those years.
During the same time frame we wiped out the Red Drum with commercial harvest as well as the King Mackerel.

Florida is and has always been short on fish management skills. It's always everything or nothing.

The King's and Red's came back after the fishing of them was banned, saltwater species seem to have a knack for that.....

Before the question is asked, those shark fin's were used to make soup which not so long ago was pretty popular in seafood restaurants in the coastal regions around the south....

Gar feed primarily on carp and buffalo Ralph and they have been overfish mainly by bowfishing.

Ghost, I could try some shark fin soup but I'd have to carry a big book of the sharks of NA with me and a computer to see what sizes and numbers humans are allowed to eat. We cant eat some of the slow species of sharks other sharks eat. You can go to jail for eating the type only other sharks are allowed to eat.

The result is most people say to hell with it. You'd think there was a govt plan behind that plan if you were a conspiracy theorist- or realist.

They cant figure out that when people are afraid of getting cited for killing a shark, the bad sharks (the ones in high supply) that kill and eat the good sharks (the ones in short supply) just dont get killed and their populations remain high. Humm, maybe they did figure that out.

Jag,

It sounds to me like you want to save the fish population by not having any regulations. If that happened, humans would wipe out your preferred species long before sharks.

IMHO & YMMV

That is great news, it means there are still schit loads of sharks.....

I've seen different.

Mainly you can still catch some bass in Rayburn because BASS and public sentiment have made keeping any verboten. Also, Texas wildlife recs against eating them due to toxins. Oh, it was ok years ago before they started protecting Texas rivers from toxic inflow, but not now. They are dangerous now.

It would blow your mind to see their recommended restricted list.

Now we are starting to have professional walley and crappie competitions. It wont be long before they are on the MORE protected list.

I was fishing Ratburn and Livingston before they ever completely filled up.

25 years later there were still schools of bass coming up and covering a few acres. Thousands. Get a limit of 10 iirc from 3-6 pounds. But, that was back when commercial buffalo fishermen ran long nets catching buffalo. They also caught and killed thousands of gator and and other big gar. Yeah, sometimes they would get a catfish or big bass. I knew some of those men

BASS came along and raised hell fearing commercial fishermen were carrying a bass home at times and eating one. BS, the fines for getting caught with a netted bass would put a man out of business.

They werent concerned about the fact carp and buffalo suck up billions of game fish eggs a year. You could worm fish submerged creeks through timber and find a huge area with 4-7 lb bass and fish them for a week or two before the big gar congregated enough to move them out.

Well, they finally got rid of the netters and the bass populations declined to todays fraction of what they once were.

Modern fish and game management in action.

After the bass decline, in size and numbers, my cousin and I would go a mile or so up the Pophers Creek arm and tie or anchor where the old tree line crossed the creek banks.

Fish and wait. Maybe catch a stray feeder or two. After a while we would see the big boils of the big gar rolling and heading toward us a half mile away. Time to set out your bag of grape fliptail worms and blue and white Heddon Torpedos. Then the escaping schools of bass would hit, headed for the safety of shallow water and dead timber structure.

We would have 30 or so minutes of fast action, until the feeding behemoths were upon us. Then, it was over.

Rayburn used to be called the Bass Factory. It WAS called the Bass Factory. No more. Thank you, Modern Game Management.

That it is for certain!

Man... the guys an Optometrist, political science expert, conspiracy theorist, social studies expert, white supremacist, and now a fisheries biologist? Im sure I didnt cover them all, just post a new topic and he will certainly express his expert opinion.

I dont know how he gets all that in, when hes on here 24hrs a day.....

You know you are one bored mother fugker when you find yourself trying to rid the world of its shark problem, from West Texas.

LOL

You and I are just going to have to agree to disagree. I like the natural world, including the prey as well as the predators. You want to rule it, I want to enjoy it.

Peace to you.

I was being facetious.

Jags concern about sharks is every bit as relevant as his concern about black people.

I wasnt.

It is written: Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered

Of course, the heathens disagree. It's much more interesting when mountain lions and bears are not hunted enough to maintain a fear of man. It keeps more outdoorsmen on their toes.

That's why we have wolves decimating our wild ungulate herds.

Roger, this reminds me of years ago when guys were raising hell about the increasing flocks of cormorants and worrying about the deleterious effect on game fish populations.

Fish and Game said they mainly ate trash fish.

They spent a lot of sportsmans money and did a big study and time dragged on a few years, iirc, and they never released the results. Iirc, it took legal action to get the results of the study released.

The findings were that the birds were more disastrous to game fish populations and ate more bass and crappie than anyone could have ever imagined.

Nevertheless, due to some treaty with Mexico it is illegal, as far as I know, to kill one. Beneficial species, I guess. I expect they are eaten in Mexico and dont pose a significant problem to their game fish.

You can be arrested for killing crows, blackbirds and ravens if you arent protecting crops or such.

Federal Migratory Bird Act.

Oh yeah, just wait until the federal bird cops get more people in the field.

I expect the country is well populated by federal class criminals.

The Feds are much more knowledgable in managing our critters in such a manner as to restrict our original constitutional freedoms.

People kill stuff

Wolves, Sharks, Bears ect

We people don't like competition

I dont like essentially unrestricted predation on game I'm not typically allowed to be a predator of.

Except, you can legally hunt crows...


Jag sure does eat a lot of crow on this forum..... he shouldnt of made that mistake lol

Those hammers migrate each year at same time w tarpons run. It’s happened forever and always will.

https://corvidresearch.blog/tag/crows-protected-my-law/

💎

The management of our natural resources leaves a lot to be desired in this country. Between the politics and money dictating wildlife management, and the scientific data which seems to always be wrong providing the data, it's a wonder there's anything left to hunt or fish. As far as commercial fishing goes the stocks did alright until company boats and absentee owners owners sent crews out to harvest the stocks and over fished the resources. Net fishing definitely put the hurt on some species, as did the fish traps. My family has been commercial fishing in Florida since 1928, and in the seafood restaurant business since 1938, and we still actively do both.

Did you want to hunt crow in a park in downtown Portland OR?

You know its an open season in TX right?

More just plain ignorance from Jag on yet another topic....

Yea, you can legally hunt crows but there are lots of Fed. hoops to jump through, including non-toxic shot. And yes you have to "report" your kills.

I would agree, and believe you are spot on with that assertion, Sir.

We used to be able to just go shoot them.

Now they are more on footing with game birds like ducks and doves.

Ej considers that putting trash birds on such a pedistle is a moot point, as he does Zero being an anti 2A traitor.

It's just not important to the high IQ crew.

And don't you just love how the idiots in those kinds of videos never shut their airplane hangar size cakeholes the whole time, trying to sensationalize THEIR "nature" video. Puke. Gag.

Yep, so that makes 2 good reasons to wack them.

"If we can jes save one innocen chiles live", Joycelin Elders.

Hoping the West Texas shark infestation gets cured real quick.

NOT when they're attached to 80-150 lb leader, 40-60 lb running line, and a rod the size of a pool cue or broomstick on the other end.

Jag-
How many sharks have you killed?

How often do you kill sharks?

How often are you on the ocean?

I agree, TrueGrit. The shark police and shark huggers have consistently gotten worse over the last several decades.

On another note, a load of 00 buck or a slug in the head will leave them with a new attitude when they're fuggin with your catch.

Thank you! As an almost lifelong sport fisherman in FL, that video darn near made me want to puke or punch the loudmouth talking. Like you said, if he really wanted to "save that tarpon's life", he'd have cut the line like I and many friends have on fish over the years. It's just what you do. I've seen guys cut the line on big tarps while in a tournament.

The dumb phugk in this video is full of schit, and is no sportsman. Just trying to hype his dumbass video.

Not much now. A few a year fishing the coast. However, until about age 27 I camped and fished the coast a good bit, surf and bays with bait for redfish and trout. A fair bit then, living 20 miles from the coast.

True Grit is right, I need to kill more.

I've eaten some a few times in West Texas from friends who fish the coast. Specks are much better in my opinion.

Love shark meat. Grilled, fried, all good.

Catch an ass ton of dog fish around the house. Never kept one but have heard they make a decent meal if handled correctly.

Next your going to tell us your penis is capable of growing past 2”.... but only for Tawanda down at the bodega.

I guess that makes you a liar again.

More quality content curated by Mr. Jag.

Who fishes for tarpon rigged like that?

Easy now hot shot, I don't usually kill something unless I can sell it or eat it. I have to admit I'm still pretty hard on varmints and poisonous snakes. I'm getting softer as I age but damn a rattlesnake.

I don't care for specks, I'll take a red or black drum first. specks just don't have any flavor, pretty bland in my opion.

Sorry, TG.

Well, I kill skunks and porky pines too, and I'm not selling or eating them. Skunks are hell on quail nests and porkys are hell on bird dogs.

I kill weeds in the garden, too, just for doing what they do.

Crow season in Missouri is from November 1 - March 3, with no limit. Report your kills? Not required, neither is non toxic shot unless hunting a federally regulated waterfowl area. No special tags or stamp required, just a statewide small game permit. I love calling and decoying those sumbitches in the winter.

Roger, try some Slap Yo Mama seasoning and corn oil. To me, they have a good bit more flavor than reds.

I've never heard anyone say reds were as good. Smaller drum I will eat, but I've seen too many worms in big ones.

Bass in cold water are good up to about 3 pounds. Bigger are ok.

Sheepshead are better than reds afaic.

Crappie and specks are best for me and yellow cat if not real fat.

Very common.

Agree. Too much water in the meat, too. I'll take a redfish any day.

Many years ago I began my diving expedition on Guam at the age of 14. Within a very short time I began commercial spear fishing because the locals paid .50/pound, head, guts, and all. It was not uncommon for the gang to bring 150-200 pounds to the market and that was good money back then.

What I never told my folks was the war we had with sharks. There be more sharks in those waters than fleas on a pack of wild dogs, and they were aggressive. Didn’t take long before we grew tired of them stealing our fish and destroying our gear, so the last wanker to shoot a fish had to guard them.

Lot of big sharks, whitetips, hammerheads, tigers etc. The only time we backed down was when a great white of about 20’ joined the fray. We all learned how to straighten bent spears and to do brain shots in very short order. Given the time we would remove the barbed spear point just to make short work of it.

I don’t have anything in particular against sharks, but now and then they need killin’. They aren’t hard to nail when their face is 3-5’ from your spear point.

Let's go wade fishing!

Unless the ‘poon is wore out just loosen the drag and let it run. It will likely give the shark one of those Wiley Coyote moments. Been there, done that. I never used heavy tackle on ‘poon though. Fly and plug rods, 16# line.

Over fished my azz.

Here in upstate NY our crow season is from Sept 01 - Mar 31. The coyote
season is from Oct 01 - Mar 29
OldCuss

You prove over and over just what an amazing dumbass you are.

Tournaments and structure called for the heavier tackle, my friend.

I thought all proper tarpon fishing happened on a 10wt.

Grins.

Nothing at all wrong with that on a flats or bay boat where you can let them run (which I prefer). But, around structure or a bunch of other boats, or fishing $$ tournaments, that's not gonna work.

For entertainment, Do your google-fu on Boca Grande Tarpon.

This brings up another thing I hate about China. 100s of thousands of sharks a year are killed so that those azzholes can have $500/bowl shark fin soup. 99% of them are thrown back in the ocean without fins and die. You guys know I am FAR from an enviro Nazi. This is just waste, plain and simple. This is like one Hunter shooting 100 deer with a non fatal wound, cutting the backstrap off and leaving the animals to die and the carcasses to rot in the woods.

I get that, but a loose drag is a loose drag. God gave us thumbs for a reason.

I agree with that 100%, we cut off every shark while sword fishing even when it was legal to fin. I've cut fins off thousands of sharks but never from one that was alive. I shot every live shark before we drug them through the door, and still got bit a few times.

This whole chitt show of a thread started because there were two videos posted.

One of a shark biting a fish in half and the other was a shark feeding on a dead, bloated, whale.

Then the title was "Why I kill sharks"

Made no sense to me.

Now, if there were video's of sharks shimmering through peoples yards, eating kids and pets, that would make more sense.

We need white sharks to curb the protected sea lion explosion.

My thoughts went to Boca as soon as you posted that gear setup.
You ever place for any of the payout slots?

I remember a new Grady White and $200K in total prizes the last I ever payed attention to that event....

Jeff, I never placed. That tournament has gotten to be the Rolls Royce of tarpon tournaments. You gotta have $$'s and lots of time to fish to stay in the money slots. A fellow I know from high school who has been very successful in the restaurant business has a son who fishes the Boca Grande tournament every year. You probably know him. He was on Tucker a couple weeks ago. His son is a damn good poon'head and has had success. But, because Dad has the big bucks, he's not under any pressure financially, either in the tournament or out in the world. That tournament has gotten to almost be a who's who list.

That said, I've caught some serious fish in that pass. And not just tarpon. BTW- you want sharks? You came to the right spot. lol. There are some monsters in there.

Here is a perfect example of why you use the tackle I described in an earlier post. You try to get them to the boat quickly, because you otherwise stand a real good chance of getting cut off on another boat, or losing the fish to one of the many big sharks that patrol the area during tournament time. But, I'll stop rambling because you already know all this.

No

Thanks for the explanation.

I ate shark in New Zealand.

Not near as good as blue cod....but more affordable.

Wow, what some folks will do for a prize and braggin' rights.

That looks like as much fun as combat fishing on some western rivers during salmon/steelhead season.

Not for me fortunately. But thanks for the pic l_d

Gotta love a bunch of dudes in jerseys fishing on top of each other in $150K overgrown bass boats.

Knock, knock....

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MnfX466iVEU

😎

Dude in a t shirt and jeans, in a beater Alumacraft, with a $80 K-mart rig probably wins every once in a while too...................just to pizz em off.

You should see the outfits the guys on the Columbia fishing for pikeminnow use to earn $50K + a season.

depends on the species of shark some are much better that others, black tip is damn good.

I heard it's $5K per team to sign up now. I wounder how many Pin fish the bait shops go through for bait during that tournament?

We do most our Tarpon fishin' with flies by sight as they roll up on the flats on the south side of the Skyway...

We get plenty of shark action there too while fishing, typically once a big shark get on one we are landing they go on self release, just a big run that never stops until the tippet pops

ha I've caught 3 tarpoon over 200lbs from a pier.

Nice boat.

Allright. I wish someone would have filmed that. Every time I'm wade fishing near a big pier it seems someone is being filmed having help hoisting up a 10 ft shark.

I'll drink to that, Bark.

that was back before camera phones the late 90s to about 2002.

Jeff, cool pics.

$5K now? Geez.

That's my old stomping grounds. Great snook and reds fishing there, too. Had a 13' Whaler back in my younger days that I set up with fold down seats and a deck to cast from behind the seats. 40 Yamaha motor. Helluva little boat. Wish I had it today. Used to do a lot of wade fishing around there, too. And south side of Ft DeSoto, between there and the bridge.

Our last sled was a Ranger Ghost 169 flats boat. Can't find pics of it right now. Might have gotten eaten with photobucket fiasco. ??

That used to happen back in the day. But, with that $5K entry fee Jeff was talking about, that pretty much separates the men from the boys.

And yes, it really is combat fishing, and almost like a Mt Everest mentality. Survival of the fittest: best funded, best prepared, best nourished, best gear, best baits..

You're welcome, kingston.

And pic. Jeff also.

Gotta be Ron Jeremy making a cameo on the left. Talk about a hammerhead.... sheesh.

I too started with a 13.6 Boston Whaler running a 25hp Johnson.
We put in at Ft. Desoto one day and went over to Egmont Key for some shark action.

The sharks were thick in the ships channel there and we were catching one after another.
I was down to using my pliers for a weight to get to the bottom, the sharks had torn up all our gear.

We had 8 or 9 sharks layin in the bottom of that boat when one came to life outta no where and started rippin from one end of the boat to the other biting everything he could get his jaws wrapped around.

There just not too many places to get outta the way in a 13 ft boat, I dam near jumped overboard.

Finally got a gaff in him and settled him down...

Did a lot of night sharking off the Big Indian Rocks Pier, you had to be a member of the Sun Coast Shark Fishing Ass. to spend the night out there. We had a small row boat for setting out our baits and a davit for hoisting the sharks, our membership fees paid for that.

Crazy days and a great place to grow up as a kid...

A couple of the guys I grew up with there own these two boats, that's what I go out in when I visit the area there today.
These pics were taken at the Maximo Park boat ramp......

Great pic and great fish, Roger.

Thanks for the story and pics, Jeff

Both: the good old days.

I'm gonna kill a sting ray. And a man of war.

This what a Camp Fire is for.............

Jeff, If I weren't probably older than you, we'd have surely run into each other back in the day. All the places you mention were on my radar back then. And, no kidding about a great place to grow up. And also don't think I'd want to dance with a big shark in a 13'6" Whaler. Lol.

A friend of mine and his older brother and I used to run out to Egmont and camp out on the pilot boat dock all night. (I doubt you can do that anymore). We'd fish all night and then get in their 20' Open Fisherman and shark fish in and around the channel all next day. When we ran out of bait, we'd start using the speckled trout we caught the night before. I dropped a big speck over the side one time. As it was flashing and drifting side to side on the way down, something big smacked it. Damn near pulled me over til I sat down on the deck and got the drag straightened out. Turned out to be the one and only Tiger shark I've ever caught in my life. Have no idea what the heck it was doing in that neck of the woods. Long after the occasion, I did some research on Tigers, and this one did exactly what was described in many of the fight scenarios I was able to dig up. Bulldog and fight like a sumbich, and then come up to the surface and roll up in your line. After I got him unspooled and up to the side of the boat, my bud put a 12 ga slug through his grey matter and that was the end of that. Gave him the jaws.

One of the 2 biggest Manta rays I've ever seen in my life came flying out of the water about 50 yds from our boat just north of Egmont and the ships channel. We were sitting just off the channel, but IIRC he aired out from a spot inside the channel.

Those were the days.

Nice!

Don’t get it wrong, I’d take a 24’ Yellowfin anyway of the week. The price tag on new boats, especially currently popular styles like “hybrid” bay boats, is simply retarded though. Oh well, GFT.

Freddy Fender caught a nice tarpon...!

yeah no chit no way I could afford an offshore boat right now
, I'm fortunate to have good friends that can.

Jeff, found some pics of the Ranger on my old laptop.

Nice!

Freaking beautiful, LD.


Dayom, I love your float.

stiffy push pole?

Yesssir.

And Repaired. lol.

Gotta do it while it's still legal.

Thanks, fellas. I kick myself daily for selling that boat. It had the best of everything. Couldn't get people to fish and I got tired of launching and retrieving it by myself. It's fine once you're on the water. It's just the crap at the ramp. That was before Flave moved down here and Mannlicher and I hooked up.

Painful.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-52953795

Ralph, you hunt where a big bear can eat your ass, that's a chance you take do you think we should kill every one of them we see, I'd bet they kill more people than sharks...do you know how many folks are killed by deer each year.... it's more than sharks... I'll keep one to eat but let the others go.

https://www.newsweek.com/great-white-shark-drown-whale-1517391

the last trip I went on when I hurt my back we caught some sharks only killed this one bre caught it on my little tld 5 reel.

All right. I hope her dad fried her a big mess of shark, Roger.

This is what was thinking the whole time I was watching it.

I like to see sharks when I'm scuba diving. Generally they keep their distance. Sharks have a low reproductive rate and have difficulty recovering from population decreases. They play an important role in marine ecosystems and I don't think we need to wipe out all the apex predators in the oceans. I would advocate leaving them alone.

Of course sharks can be dangerous in some instances, but a little risk is part of the spice of life. Otherwise, why hunt dangerous game?

https://www.npr.org/2020/07/28/896279753/great-white-shark-kills-woman-in-maine

https://nypost.com/2020/07/29/kayaker-talks-trying-to-save-nyc-woman-killed-by-shark-in-maine/

Sorry, Rooster. Ill try to post videos ust interstin ta u.

Just now on Watters World. 14 shark attacks in the US this year.

Maybe this will be more to some peoples liking.

I guess I'm just more like those POS killer whales, the bassturds.

They say that sharks only attack surfers because they look like their food when on the boards.
What are they supposed to do when they see a great white circling? Get off the boards and tread water? 😆

Sharks are just another of gods creations - did god mess up again? I'm more fond of sharks than christians though I gotta admit.

What he said......Had a gal out in my boat last year fishing.....she had hooked a decent Sea Trout and was almost to the boat with it when big Bullshark just engulfed it. Freaked her out......and it squashed her idea of getting into the water to Pee! LOL

https://www.staradvertiser.com/2020...auis-honolua-bay-dies-from-his-injuries/

SLM

The professional fisherman who filmed this was just on Tucker telling how these incidents are becoming more common and they are destroying the bay fisheries subsequent to Federal Restrictions.


HUMM. Planned food restriction programs?

looks like thresher sharks