Inshore Sharking

By Nick Honachefsky
Jun 15th 2017

Hot summer days bring in the creatures that drive the Jersey Shore news cycle – sharks. You don't have to venture far offshore to have at some serious big game action as many coastal sharks such as threshers, browns, duskies, hammerheads and blacktips can be caught from a half mile to 5 miles off the coast, giving small boat anglers a real chance at tangling with heavy duty fare.

Here's how to set up:

Start with some chum. Go with the usual 5 gallon bucket of bunker chum, lid off and hanging upside down in a chum bag. Get that slick rolling and keep it going, mixing in some fresh bunker chunks to spice up the slick. Best baits are fresh bunker as they are the predominant bait inshore at this time of year, but if you are having issues obtaining fresh menhaden, you can also utilize the ol' shark bait standard mackerel fillets or fresh bluefish fillets. If you do use mackerel, go with small to medium size mackerel, not the horse macks, so that a smaller 50 to 100-pound shark will be able to inhale the bait whole.

You'll be fishing in shallow in about 40 to 100 feet of water. If you want to go with a standard set up, utilize a 50 Wide Shimano Tiagra or Penn International reels matched with 5'6" Seeker or Penn International rods. From the reels is 80 pound Quattro Camo line to which a 300 pound class Sampo barrel swivel is attached, to which a 3 to 5 ounce egg sinker is lined on through a 6 to 8 foot section of #15 wire leader. A size 10/0 Mustad hook #7691 is haywired onto the business end. You don't need to send out the heavy duty cable shark rigs persay, but can scale down a little bit as you will be battling sharks that average from 50 to 100 pounds.

Downsized set ups can start with a Shimano 25 TLD class reel, matched with a 30 to 80-lb class 6-foot rod, spooled with 50-pound mono line, to a 200-lb wind on leader and a size 11/0 Gamakatsu Big River hook on the business end. Set out four rods in a spread. Drop one rig on the bottom, dragging across to see if anything is patrolling the seafloor. The next two are set in 10 foot depth intervals, fluttering at about 20 and 30 feet down. The last line is a flat line, sent without weight about 30 feet back off the stern from the boat. Get ready, small boat coastal sharking is a blast and will have your crew buttoned up with some serious arm-bending action.