by Marco Angioni II

Created on: June 27, 2010

Shark fishing is a fun and exciting way to test your skills as an angler.  Shark fishing is completely different from any other type of fishing you may have done in the past and requires a different skill set and different equipment from what you may currently possess.

Although shark fishing requires different equipment than what you would use for other types of fishing, the most important thing you have to consider is bait.  You can have the most sophisticated and expensive gear available on the market today, but if you cannot attract a shark, you will never catch one.  For this reason, bait is the most important factor in shark fishing.

Baiting a shark is far different from anything else you may have done in the past.  Simply sticking a worm to the end of your of your hook will not attract anything but flies.  Additionally, lures and other tackle box items will not attract a shark.

The first thing you need to do is bring the sharks to you.  This is accomplished by creating a chum line.  Chum is simply cut up pieces of fish, fish heads, seafood, and other types of meat.  Basically, you want a big, bloody bucket of random fish and meat pieces.  The bloodier the chum, the better it will be at attracting sharks.

You create your chum line by dropping the chum in the water as you drift along.  Essentially, you are creating a trail for the sharks to follow.  The sharks will smell the blood in the water and will swim to the area looking for food.  At this point, you can begin fishing for sharks.

Although the chum line will get sharks in your area, you need an additional piece of bait in order to hook a shark.  For this, you should stick with what sharks love best, bloody meat.  A big fish head from a Bonito, Jack Crevalle, Ladyfish, Blue Runner, Grouper, or some other salt water fish with do the trick nicely.  The sharks will already be in a frenzy from the chum line.  As such, lowering that big fish head into the water will be irresistible to sharks.

When baiting your hook, make sure to hook the fish head through a secure location to prevent the shark from taking your bait off of your hook.  This is an important step because you do not want all of your hard work in attracting the sharks to go to waste.

Remember, a chum line is important in attracting sharks to your area.  The bloodier the chum is, the better.  Once you have sharks in your area, bait your hook with a fresh fish head of Bonito, Jack Crevalle, Ladyfish, Blue Runner, Grouper, or some other salt water fish.  However, make sure that your bait is properly secured or else a shark will eat the bait right off your hook.

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