Well, I have been fishing hard for the past 2 days. I rented a Yak and have been catching my own bait. I have officially found use for stingrays and skate. BAIT! I have been using the double j-hook rig that I read about on the Texas Shark fishing forums to rig up skate and rays caught from the surf. The small rays and skate are usually good for 2 to 3 big baits. They last FOREVER and ther crabs can't even tear them up they are soo tough.
I was a little unsure if I would get runs......but I have gotten 6 solid pickups and all but one have come on rays/skate. (The other was a kingfish that came back bitten in half)
Anyway, as I am still fine-tuning the hookup procedure.....it paid off tonight.
At about 9:15 my Penn 9/0 that I yakked out 200-300 yards went off slowly. I was surprised how slow the pickup was but it definitley was a pickup. I leaned in to set the hook and the fight was on. About 1 hour later we safely caught and released this beautiful sepcimen:
Sorry about the iffy pictures.....we will load the ones from the other cameras soon!!
It measured 7ft 1 inch from tip of nose to tip of tail. I assume it was a Sandbar.......maybe a dusky?
After the release I reeled in the other baits and found my huge skate bait had a big, clean bite out of it.....just missing the hooks. It was probably a similar shark.
I know for a fact that I am getting some bigger shark action...I hope you guys are too!! We will be at it again Friday night, shoot me a PM if you want to come join us at Fenwick Drive-on or 3r's!!!
Ben Dziwulski
God bless