# Jekyll Shark Fishing from the Beach



## pbmang

My bass fishing has recently taken a back seat to a new passion of mine, which is catching big sharks form the beach. It is really about all I want to do anymore, and a majority of my fishing money is now spent on that gear. The only problem now is that I live in North Georgia, about 5.5 hours from the coast. But, even with such a drive, my buddies and my wife loaded up two weekends ago and made a trip to Jekyll Island to give the shark fishing another go. This was our second trip out there, with the first having some pretty great results. Being warmer, and also more experienced, we figured this time would be even better. Boy were we wrong!

With the heat also came the bugs. Getting to the areas we fished, you had to walk down a boardwalk, and boy was it torture. The mosquitoes would swarm all over you. In the two days we fished, I would be shocked if I had less than 30 bug bites on my arms and legs. On top of that, the tides were really bad this time, and the current was even worse. I have never seen a tide rise and fall as much as it did that weekend. In one of the pictures you can see me tying up a rock to use as a weight, and when the tide was really rocking, it wasn't holding. There would be a few hours each night we would just pull the baits in and sit because the current would just wash everything up on the beach. To hold a piece of squid on the bottom we were using a 6oz weight, and that usually weighed about as much as the small sharks that we would hook on that. The biggest rocks we had were no match for the 5 - 10lb baits we were dropping for the bigger sharks.

After two nights we did managed to hook up with one bull shark around 5 feet long, but a crimp let loose as we were pulling him up in the surf and he got away before we could get a picture. We also managed a large ray, which is the second large ray we have caught from this area. After messing with both the sharks and rays, the big rays scare me 1000 times worse than the sharks. The barbs on their tails are no joke!

Anyway, here are a few pictures I thought some of you may be interested in seeing. My wife came along and tried to take some "artsy" pictures, and some of them came out pretty cool, IMO!  Plus, it shows off a 14/0 I picked up on Craigslist a few weeks ago.  It cleaned up REALLY nice!


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## BassHunter25

Nice pics.  I bet catching big sharks and sting rays from the beach is easier than a boat.  they dont' have as much depth to bull dog ya.  Not that its easy.  I know those rays get on the bottom and they are like an anchor.  I had one sitting still on the bottom for like twenty minutes.  I swore I was hung up, then he finally started moving up a little.


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## Killer Kyle

Where are the pics of the sharks?!?!


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## shark4fun

we must not live too far apart. I am in upstate SC and my buddy North Ga. I sold bass boat and bought a center console. Its an affliction we go to Jekyll every chance we get and I can tell you the shark fishing has not been as good this year for the big sharks. I think it will straighten out soon. see the thread titled St Marys-Need info where it talks about the red water. this with all the rains has hurt lately but I believe it will get better soon. from my experience when you see LOTS of schools of big pogies in the sound the big sharks are close. By reports the big pogies are just to the north and south of jekyll which means they should show soon with a little help from the weather.
I dont know which costs more, bass fishin, or shark fishin!
Tight Lines to all......


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## shark4fun

St Marys is to the south and currents run north. We need to post more as there doesnt seem to be a lot of avid shark fisherman that post. or at least not the ones that target the big boys.....


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## pbmang

BassHunter25 said:


> Nice pics.  I bet catching big sharks and sting rays from the beach is easier than a boat.  they dont' have as much depth to bull dog ya.  Not that its easy.  I know those rays get on the bottom and they are like an anchor.  I had one sitting still on the bottom for like twenty minutes.  I swore I was hung up, then he finally started moving up a little.



From shark fishing on a boat and from the surf, I would say the surf is a bit more challenging.  Most everything from the surf is more difficult, from bait deployment, to dealing with sea weed and not to mention the beach walkers when they start hanging around.  Plus, all this stuff gets HEAVY, and you have to lug every bit of it to and fro.  But, one thing I think is a ton easier is actually releasing the sharks.  We have been able to remove the hook from every shark we have brought to the sand, and that is a whole lot more difficult on a boat IMO.



Killer Kyle said:


> Where are the pics of the sharks?!?!



Haha...I wish we had some.  But I do have a few pictures from the trip before this:



















shark4fun said:


> we must not live too far apart. I am in upstate SC and my buddy North Ga. I sold bass boat and bought a center console. Its an affliction we go to Jekyll every chance we get and I can tell you the shark fishing has not been as good this year for the big sharks. I think it will straighten out soon. see the thread titled St Marys-Need info where it talks about the red water. this with all the rains has hurt lately but I believe it will get better soon. from my experience when you see LOTS of schools of big pogies in the sound the big sharks are close. By reports the big pogies are just to the north and south of jekyll which means they should show soon with a little help from the weather.
> I dont know which costs more, bass fishin, or shark fishin!
> Tight Lines to all......



Most of us are in the Dallas, Acworth, Kennesaw area of North GA.  I have heard a few say the big sharks haven't shown up like they have in years past.  This is our first year ever doing this, so I have no clue.  We are thinking of heading to the Gulf Coast for our next trip though.



shark4fun said:


> St Marys is to the south and currents run north. We need to post more as there doesnt seem to be a lot of avid shark fisherman that post. or at least not the ones that target the big boys.....



If I wasn't so far from the coast, I would post a lot more about it.  It's just the 300 mile drive that kills me.


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## sea trout

looks awsome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## Duffman3746

Nice pb!!! I was there the same weekend you were there. I happened to be fishing about 100 yds down the beach from you guys one night. Along with the next day we walked past you guys to get to a spot. I'll post what pics i have from then tonight but we were targeting smaller sharks and just couldnt get away from them it was a blast! I only had one rod set up for larger sharks with no takers. This is crazy cuz i live up in the cumming/gainesville area


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## ridgerunner404

*jekyll Island*

jekyll is never to far away,,,,, my 2nd home abord my 23' REEL TIME


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## sharks

*jekyll island*

you are right jekyll is never to far headed that way next weekend to look for sharks or tarpon had a decent trip the week of the 4th of july didnt catch any big sharks but did get several blacktips and one decent bull shark


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## pbmang

Duffman3746 said:


> Nice pb!!! I was there the same weekend you were there. I happened to be fishing about 100 yds down the beach from you guys one night. Along with the next day we walked past you guys to get to a spot. I'll post what pics i have from then tonight but we were targeting smaller sharks and just couldnt get away from them it was a blast! I only had one rod set up for larger sharks with no takers. This is crazy cuz i live up in the cumming/gainesville area



That's pretty nuts.  Small world...lol  We noticed the same thing with the small sharks.  We had a couple of rods we would cast out when we got really bored and would catch some small sharks.  It was crazy how many of them must have been out there because it was a pretty quick bite almost every time we threw out there.



sharks said:


> you are right jekyll is never to far headed that way next weekend to look for sharks or tarpon had a decent trip the week of the 4th of july didnt catch any big sharks but did get several blacktips and one decent bull shark



Let us know how it goes!


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## shark4fun

It's the same no matter where you are at, on the beach or in the sound, drop a piece of shrimp to the bottom and you will have a baby shark in a skinny minute. They say this area is the shark breeding capital of the east coast.


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## chriswkbrd

*I'm close by*

I live in Acworth too, and I'm heading down there the 6th - 12th, Hopefully I'll have some pics to share with everyone in a couple of weeks. 



pbmang said:


> From shark fishing on a boat and from the surf, I would say the surf is a bit more challenging.  Most everything from the surf is more difficult, from bait deployment, to dealing with sea weed and not to mention the beach walkers when they start hanging around.  Plus, all this stuff gets HEAVY, and you have to lug every bit of it to and fro.  But, one thing I think is a ton easier is actually releasing the sharks.  We have been able to remove the hook from every shark we have brought to the sand, and that is a whole lot more difficult on a boat IMO.
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> Haha...I wish we had some.  But I do have a few pictures from the trip before this:
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> Most of us are in the Dallas, Acworth, Kennesaw area of North GA.  I have heard a few say the big sharks haven't shown up like they have in years past.  This is our first year ever doing this, so I have no clue.  We are thinking of heading to the Gulf Coast for our next trip though.
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> If I wasn't so far from the coast, I would post a lot more about it.  It's just the 300 mile drive that kills me.


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## pbmang

That sounds good man!  Good luck down there.  Small world with the other GONer's also being down there.


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## Seering

Well ... another Paulding family was down there about the same time.

We spent the week of July 9 just relaxing.
And honestly in the 30+ years of visiting .. this was the most current ive ever seen.   

8ounces of weight off the left pier ... and within about 30 seconds it would be 180 degrees and floating the weights only a few feet down. 


Didn't stop us from catching a mess of little ones during the time tides were reversing .. including something that my youngest daughter got just to the top of the water before it changed its mind .. and popped 80# test before the drag could catch up


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## Gamikatsu

what do you use for bait for that kind of stuff?  cut mullet?


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## pbmang

We use whole Bonita and stingrays (when we can catch them).  We did have a large barracuda head this trip because we came across one at the bait store.


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## willkelley

where was this exactly? we have a 14 0 and some smaller senators and were wanting to try jekyll sometime within the next month


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## pbmang

The island is pretty small and we will fish all over.  Depending on where we are staying, we setup next to where we are staying, or just drive to one of the public parking areas and hoof it to the beach.  There are a few different access points, and more beach than you will want to carry your stuff down.  Usually we will just unload our gear and start walking.  When we get tired, as long as we are away from swimmers, we will just setup there.  We have only been a few times, but we haven't really found one area to be better than the other yet.


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## Darkhorse

You could try a "Sputnik" sinker for those fast currents. It has wires that hold the bottom better than a pyramid. There are a couple of types. Not sure if you can buy one around St. Simons or Jekyl.
Spend less than  $200. and get you a surf fishing cart (or make one out of PVC), it makes totin all that gear a lot easier. I just bought mine from Cabelas instead of making my own.
Your wise to fear or respect the stingrays. I got a barb in my ankle when I was in high school, we were wading and throwing cast nets for mullet near Pinellas Park Fla. It makes a good story nowadays but I don't want to go through it again.


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