Took my boys to the beach paddle boarding (and hunting pogy pods for jacks, poons, etc).
While out, saw a guy on a kayak paddling out a Bonita. He stopped and chatted w us for a few minutes before going further out to drop the bait.
Got back in and could see some guys down the beach with 80 wides, so took the boys over to chat. They explained they were not with the guy I met in the kayak…. And they use a drone to set baits.
We watched as they set a 10 pound ray wing 500 yards out and then 1/3 a shark (body plug- just behind the dorsal to just behind the anal fin) 400 yards out.
This doesn’t bother near as much as the tarpon drone hunting. They are essentially just casting further. Still not my cup of tea, but I don’t see any ethic conflicts doing it this way.
Thinking about sharking… My very first saltwater excursions were to fishing piers where enterprising anglers would ask kids on surfboards to paddle their bait out and drop them. This was on south Miami Beach in the early seventies and the kids on the boards were transporting one to ten pound chunks of fresh killed jack crevalle (or anything else available) out about 2 to 300 yards in front of the old concrete south beach pier… The sharks - not little guys at all - bulls, the occasional tiger… some of them in ten foot plus range… Not exactly something safe to be carrying a leaking bait out on a surfboard…
I could see using drones instead. Me? I preferred simply catching a big fish, hooking it up - then allowing it to swim away from the pier before stopping it and waiting until something picked it up. All of this was long before I ever got my first job on a boat - and an introduction to the rough and tumble of pier fishing down here in paradise. Haven’t done any of that in many years now…
If you’re beach sharking you have a few choices to get your bait out there to the third gut or beyond. Swim it out, paddle it out (kayak or board), RC boat it out, PWC it out, or drone it out. If the surf’s up kayaks, RC boats, or PWCs aren’t viable. I never saw much sense in swimming the bait out to the big sharks, but some folks have done it. Even at night. NOT ME… RC boats or drones are the most viable methods for the most conditions. Sometimes we’d run the baits off a jetty. We’d hang them below a balloon off a Life Saver mint and let the outgoing tide carry them out until the mint dissolved, dropping the bait. But that won’t work off the beach. And you ain’t casting a big, weighted bait out to the third gut with an 80 wide on a six foot rod.
I think its a great improvement for land-based shark fishing, and much safer than paddling out baits at night or in choppy seas. As always just try to match the bait size to your equipment so you can quickly land the shark and release it safely.
While they can smell blood from a long distance- they (sharks) can be picky at times.
That said, they do love fishes and rays. Ray wings work really well, jacks, bonita, BIG mullet, etc. all work fantastic.
I used to shark fish in the 90s and early 2000s. I have paddled baits out on surfboards, kayaks, and even swam a couple out. Day or night, we would get them out.
Don’t do much of it anymore- but I do have a spot we shark fish regularly for blacktips and lemons.
I was really intrigued that a drone could life that much weight. It worked perfect and went out quick.
What really surprised me was this fella was putting the baits out with swimmers all around. You can’t see it in the picture since a thunderstorm was rolling in when I shot the pics- but 20 mins prior, there were swimmers everywhere.
My local county is in the process of outlawing this. Commercial operations have setup shop and have the tourists in a tizzy!
*edit to add- one guy caught a 10’ Tiger and brought it up onto the beach and did a sizzle reel for his social media- in the middle of the day and swimmers around.
Just something to consider… While folks on the beach or at ocean inlets of fishing piers go to great lengths to tangle with a shark… Along the coasts of the Everglades an angler using almost any fresh cut bait can expect a shark bite within about five minutes on a moving tide… Bulls, lemons, blacktips, and others including those two glamour guys every now and then - the tiger or the great hammerhead…
Any time one of my anglers wants -and with light tackle always. Just about guarantee at least once a day the critter will be too big for whatever gear my anglers are using (and we get them eating flies as well…). Just nothing like the the Everglades…
