One of the key factors in shark fishing is the angler’s ability to identify the species of shark as they hook and reel the shark toward landing and possible tagging.
The water in our harbor has been extremely poor this season. Heavy rain runoff from the land with all the construction going on has produced what most anglers are calling “dirty water.” The same size hammerhead sharks were caught two years apart. The clearer water catch was caught during the summer of 2024. The darker water catch was caught just two months ago. The catches were in the same month with the same tide, but two years apart. The anglers reported that they could not identify their catch until it reached two to three feet in the water column next to their boat. I am afraid we are in for some bad water conditions over the next several years.
Sharks will feed in all kinds of water conditions, if they can smell the bait. Several years ago, fishing in our same shark spot, Sue Lev, a Burnt Store Angler, hooked, identified, and landed six sharks in just under three hours. More recently, Charles Hughes of the Burnt Store Anglers was shark fishing in the same shark area with tides, bait, and time of the season all the same, he was able to, after some heavy chumming, hook just two sharks. While we recognize water temperature could have also played a part in the catch number, both conditions were 87 degrees of surface temperature water. Charles, an excellent shark fisherman, has caught most of the shark species in our harbor and reported the poor water conditions contributed to the catch number.
In 2011, during the Guy Harvey Ultimate Shark Challenge hosted by the Burnt Store Anglers, two young anglers, fishing in about the same location where our smaller hammerheads were caught, hooked and landed a 357-pound lemon shark along with many smaller blacktop and spinner sharks. Unfortunately, those days are over for us. In a little bit of good sharking news, President of the Burnt Store Anglers, Tom Zalac, just caught that beautiful 9-foot nurse shark pictured in this article. Tom released that nurse shark, and it will hopefully repopulate the nurse shark species. Wonderful job, Tom Zalac!
As anglers and conservationists, what can we do? One thing for sure is to support the clean water efforts of the organization known as Captains for Clean Water. This group, which is a non-profit group of anglers, has recently proposed and supported many pieces of legislation and major clean water projects that will hopefully get us back to nice clear water in Charlotte Harbor. They have a great website to find information about membership and their efforts. Help support this effort by joining today.
As the fall is rapidly coming upon us, the Burnt Store Anglers are gearing up for the opening of their fall program year. The Anglers is a fishing club open to everyone interested in fishing. Annual dues are just $10 per family or $75 for a lifetime membership. The fishing club has over 150 members. This year, we have a remarkable group of interesting speakers. They will address numerous fishing topics, as well as the Anglers will host a fishing rod building class, a big holiday raffle run at their first meeting in December and several local club tournaments. The Burnt Store Anglers meet on the first Monday of each month starting in October and running through May. The Anglers meeting starts at 3:30 p.m. under the Tikki Hut next to the Trading Post-Ships Store. Come and join us for a warm welcome and lots of great fishing information.
Tight Lines
