[nysteelhead]

I will be in the North Topsail area at the end of August. I was considering setting up one of my poles for larger shark and hitting the beach late day into the night. My question is distance. Am I looking to get the bait out as far as possible or do larger shark typically come in closer to the beach at this time of day? I watched a few guys last year kayak their bait out and I was wondering if this is worth the obvious effort it took them.

 

[Tucky90]

Fish up on the north end where you can drive out and the water drops off immediately from the beach

 

[AMG08]

Fishing the first gut between the sandbars can be just as effective as kayaking baits out.

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[nysteelhead]

Thanks for the suggestions, I think I might stick with trying to read the beach and find the right sloughs, sandbars...etc. Last year I watched my neighbors use a kayak to get their line out. It seemed to work for them as far as getting out a good distance but as luck would have it they came up empty. Then, as if to send them off with a slap in the behind the shark made an appearance at the end of the week.........Everyone had pretty much given up fishing on the last day and we were hanging out in the water with our families. About 10 feet away from us a very healthy sized spinner shark(?) rockets out of the water and spins up about 6-8 feet in the air and comes crashing down. The moment rivaled a good Discovery channel episode.....and cleared everyone from the water pretty quickly!

 

[FishinCary]

Plenty of black tips (4-6') around, some spinners too. Seen a large (8'+) (what I think was a bull) in the surf about a month ago at seaview pier. I would figure out which way the current is moving and set up a couple hundred yards down current of seaview. If you have a kayak then drop them as far out as you want but it's not really nessecary, some of the biggest sharks I've ever seen were cruising just behind the first bar.

 

[riverpirate]

As fall arrives the big boys come in and hang around the piers waiting for the cleaning station scraps.

 

[FishinCary]

As fall arrives the big boys come in and hang around the piers waiting for the cleaning station scraps.

Precisely. Set up down current and you get free chum

 

[catmaster]

Spinner 's are tough to land....I've hooked many and never landed one....When they spin they break everything.

 

[FishinCary]

Spinner 's are tough to land....I've hooked many and never landed one....When they spin they break everything.

I brought my first one to the pier recently. I was using a short strand of wire connected to a long heavy mono leader. When he jumped and wrapped in the mono he couldn't break it like they can when jumping on wire.

 

[nysteelhead]

Ok, I'm tying my rigs tonight in anticipation of some great fishing. Fishin cary, you brought up the wire getting twisted. I have a garage shelf full of extra weed eater string. I'm tempted to substitute it for some heavy mono only because I don't have any heavy mono right now and I'm really not patient enough to wait to tie until I go buy some. Anybody use this method? - I have seen this done before but never actually tried it. I have some .080 line and I was going to use crimps with it.

 

[AMG08]

I use weed eater line. Its .090". I crimp it together. Funny thing is its made by Shakespeare.

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[FishinCary]

I would never have guessed that weed eater line could be a heavy mono substitute.

 

[riverpirate]

Only problem I have with weed eater line is it normally comes in tight coils and has a lot of memory

 

[beagle]

For my casted rigs, here's what I build. Sort of.
http://www.double-d-extremetackle.com/Pages/castable_shark.aspx
Note how the loop to the hook is made bigger for setting up the cast. Go to bottom of page.
I vary the size and length of the mono and the wire or cable, but that is the basic form.
My bag has different versions of this set up to use for different conditions. Some have circles, some J's, some wire, some cable.
I prefer the short cable set up for spinners, but like solid wire for most of my needs.
For paddled baits...that is a whole lot of "what's best" that can be discussed.
But for casted baits, you are limited in the length from swivel to hook and too long and you cannot get it out there, too short, lost fish. Thellop at the hook is key to being able to make the longest castable rig that you can get out there.
Just my experience and that don't make me an expert.

 

[Drum Runner]

For casting leaders I'll take 18"-2 foot of 49 strand 400 test. Use a thimble on the swivel end and 2 crimp sleeves.
On the hook end I use a thimble if the hook eye is big enough. Again two crimp sleeves.

The 400 pound test 49 strand stainless wire holds up much better than smaller wires. I never have kinking issues.

Sharking doesn't have to be way out there. This past week I had lines out at 75-100 yards and lines out at 25 -30 yards. My short lines caught more sharks which most were 60 pounds or better.

Had one pick up a bait that was 30 yards out. Early evening. I thought the 7000 was going to explode. Never seen line peel that fast from a 7000 except casting. Thankfully that shark grounded it itself on the bar temporarily and my rod never loaded enough to sufficiently set the circle hook. I saw the shark when she grounded and foundered. She was a 10-11 footer if she was an inch. 30 yards from the dry sand in the day light. A 7000 was no match for such a shark.

 

[AMG08]

Last night I took a bait out by wading thigh deep and throwing it. I didn't feel like getting in the kayak with the conditions and my setup can't be casted. About a half hour after I had a run on that setup. Couldn't have been but 25 yards out. Unfortunately it didn't hook up.

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[nysteelhead]

Thanks again for the responses. I appreciate how much you guys have to offer, especially to those of us who pretty much only get to the coast on vacations. As I have offered in the past, if anyone ever heads up north to the Northern NY area and would like some information on exciting salmon and steelhead fishin as they run the creeks off lake Ontario don't hesitate to look me up. It's always an adventure hooking into a 15-20 lb salmon who takes you on a nice run up a narrow stream.

I'll be down next week and hoping to enjoy some good surf fishing on the New River Inlet Rd end of North Topsail. Of course, I have spent the last week convincing family members that my two poles rigged for shark will not single handedly attract every monster shark from the Atlantic to interrupt their swimming. I think I will have to print out some educational information on the feeding cycles of fish for them - my brother in law, who is deathly afraid of them, still does not comprehend that we were probably swimming with a school of spinners when one jumped near us last year.

 

[Drum Runner]

If he swims in the ocean, a shark would have already eaten him if humans were their food. Anybody that has spent much time swimming in the ocean or even the sounds probably would have second thoughts if they knew half of what they had been within 10 meters of. Yet they are still alive and unbitten. Even the totally ignorant fools that like to swim next to piers at night because of the pier lights all remained safe and unbitten this past week.