Fishing reports for July 26 - August 1

[Coop]

Still have the typical summertime pattern,,,kings, croaker, spot, snapper blues and some flounder,,,some sharks are being caught at night,,,hopefully we will be into some sharks this Friday for the fling.

Looking forward and meeting many of ya this Friday,,,get on the beach, go fish and have fun!

[old_bald_guy]

Was out at Faithful-S again with another jeep buddy from 7:00PM to 11:00PM. The croaker, kings, skates and spot were there for our chunk bait variety toss. Within 30 minutes, had one hook up on a 125 yard yakout on the 6/0. Made a couple great runs but this time the tackle could handle it. Made great progress until he was inside the outer break. He decided to turn towards me and I had to crank like hell to catch up the slack. When he came in closer, I lost the hookset The new anchor worked great. It's made with 3/8" rebar welded together and it's light, cheap, and will crank in without getting stuck. Nice night with good friends.

[Charkbait]

Originally Posted by old_bald_guy

Was out at Faithful-S again with another jeep buddy from 7:00PM to 11:00PM. The croaker, kings, skates and spot were there for our chunk bait variety toss. Within 30 minutes, had one hook up on a 125 yard yakout on the 6/0. Made a couple great runs but this time the tackle could handle it. Made great progress until he was inside the outer break. He decided to turn towards me and I had to crank like hell to catch up the slack. When he came in closer, I lost the hookset The new anchor worked great. It's made with 3/8" rebar welded together and it's light, cheap, and will crank in without getting stuck. Nice night with good friends.

Good catchin, this is why on the larger sharks I think you need to give a few pops on the hookset to make sure you are through. All the boat shark tourney guys I've seen do it. Let em eat and then pop, pop, pop to ensure you are through the jaw. On the first set all you may be doing is taking the stretch out of the line.

[old_bald_guy]

Originally Posted by Charkbait

Good catchin, this is why on the larger sharks I think you need to give a few pops on the hookset to make sure you are through.

I even honed those points so well a drug addict would envy. I'll try the popping technique but with the 50 mono running line I think the stretch won't add up to much at the other end? I know if I had braid it would have results but the abrasion prob...

[Charkbait]

The first pull will sink the point but maybe not all the way in, it's a long way to the barb on those big shark hooks.

[Randy Stinchcomb]

+ if you can over sharpen a hook, make the tip to thin and it can bend/fold-over right at the tip and you will not get any hook penatration

[Coop]

Originally Posted by Randy Stinchcomb

+ if you can over sharpen a hook, make the tip to thin and it can bend/fold-over right at the tip and you will not get any hook penatration

I am wondering if this could be my problem,,,I am lucky if I get a 50/50 hook up with sharks,,,I sharpen as sharp as sharp as I can,,,razor sharp,,,figuring it's tough to get a hook in a sharks mouth,,,tough skin/cartlidge,,,I may have the point to skinny,,,never thought about that.

BTW, nice report .

[Charkbait]

Originally Posted by Coop

I am wondering if this could be my problem,,,I am lucky if I get a 50/50 hook up with sharks,,,I sharpen as sharp as sharp as I can,,,razor sharp,,,figuring it's tough to get a hook in a sharks mouth,,,tough skin/cartlidge,,,I may have the point to skinny,,,never thought about that.

BTW, nice report .

I've had it happen once (not on a shark), you should know it. The point was basically doubled over itself. I think when you bring it in you would see if that happened.

[Coop]

When I think about it, I do check my hooks almost everytime after a quick hook up and they seem to be very sharp,,,I guess I am just trying to find an excuse for the lack of hook ups,,,dont have a problem with fish,,,maybe its result of all that mono out there,,,hook set could be tough due to line stretch?,,,and thick skin/cartlidge?

[Randy Stinchcomb]

Originally Posted by Charkbait

I've had it happen once (not on a shark), you should know it. The point was basically doubled over itself. I think when you bring it in you would see if that happened.

yes it is noticable but on a circle hooks wth all the bends and twist, it might not jump right out at 'ya. I have a small diamond hook sharpening file, think its a "fine cut" and just give my hooks a couple of quick swipes across the sides.

[Charkbait]

Originally Posted by Coop

When I think about it, I do check my hooks almost everytime after a quick hook up and they seem to be very sharp,,,I guess I am just trying to find an excuse for the lack of hook ups,,,dont have a problem with fish,,,maybe its result of all that mono out there,,,hook set could be tough due to line stretch?,,,and thick skin/cartlidge?

I think it's just a function of the way they eat, most of the stuff I fish for are gulpers which makes it easy. A chark will grab half the bait and take off with it and then eat it (it may not even have a hook in it's mouth), and line stretch, and tough mouth, and "I hear the clicker, grab the rod and set the hook...doh, should have waited longer".

[Coop]

all the excitement with a screamer, do the same thing at times.

[Dave]

Just got in from AI, the past two days have been horrible, Javier had an atlantic sharpnose and I lost a 4foot sandbar right at the first wave on the shore, snapped line, it wasnt on my sharkin rod, caught it on my bait rod, go figure! Other than that it was a perfect night on AI, Water temps are gettin nice and warm, finally. I just hope the action picks up for Friday, see yall then.

[Critter Gitter]

AI panfish trip 7/28am to 7/30 am. Good to meet some site members and glad a real shark was finally caught. Lord knows I tried. About 30 kings, 10 nice croakers, few dozen spot as bait. Of course had a shark rod over the bar most of the time and only one Sharpnose. Water was freezing and actually got numb wading Fri/Sat. Needless to say that sure didn't help the shark bite. Sharpnose went air bourne after hooking up so thought the spinners finally arrived. Winds were off the water most weekend as I thought it was gonna be west entire time but when it went west "Oh the Horror." Overall one beautiful pleasant weekend. Eirk got a small hake/eel like critter we need to look-up. Good to see and fish with Matt "Pier mans" enthusiasm and love for the sport.

[Pier_man0909]

the most excitement I had this weekend was snagging a 30lb. cownose with my bait rod. I looked at rutgers a few minutes ago and I am totally confused. water is in the high 60's-low 70's then a couple hours later it is in the low 60's, back up to the low 70's and then back to the low 60's. I took the temperature 3 times yesterday and at about 10 am it was 63 degrees. at 3 pm it was about 70 degrees and at 9 pm it was low 60's again. explain please. Anyways, it was good to see you again Dave, been about a year since that day with the sharks. I hope it shapes up so I have an excuse to go before the drum tourney.

2 days of HARD fishing with not much going on, 1 cownose, 1 southern stinger, handful of skates, 3-12" dogfish and a mixed bag of panfish. I expected a lot more.