Sharking fishing from the beach is becoming more popular and you will find that you can do this from most beaches in Australia. If you want to catch and release huge shark well over 100kg, hear your drag singing louder than ever before and want the fight of your life, this type of beach fishing might be for you.
Where
Most beaches around the country will be good to target sharks from, however there are better beaches than others to try your luck. I’ve found that beaches that more isolated and remote tend to fish better. Some of my favourite places in QLD to target sharks are from Fraser Island, Stradbroke Island and Moreton island, however there are many other places that will fish equally as good. Always use common sense when fishing for sharks as you shouldn’t fish anywhere near swimmers and other beach goers. Keep in mind, that catching a 100kg + shark is a very real possibility so you have to be mindful of where you fish.
You will find that some places fish better than others and what you will be looking for is ideally a beach that has deep water close to the shore in either a drop off or a gutter. We have always found that beach fishing on calm beaches has been a lot easier to get your baits out compared to a surf beach.
Getting your baits out into the right depth can be the biggest challenge of land-based shark fishing. Many people will opt for an ocean kayak or small inflatable boat as the baits you will be using will be large and the fishing reel you will be using will most likely be a large overhead so casting will be impossible. On a recent trip to Fraser island we used a small drone to carry our baits out past the breakers. To make this work we used a small piece of fencing wire bent up at the bottom to form a hook. We looped a small piece of light fishing line from the sinker and when we flew the drone out to the right area we dropped the bait by spinning the drone around. This took a fair amount of fine tuning, but when we got the hang of it, it worked flawlessly.
Gear
The type of sharks you are likely to tangle with could be anything from small whalers up to 4 foot in length to enormous tiger sharks. Most commonly you will catch whalers, bull sharks and the odd hammerhead. These are very powerful gamefish and you will need to fish with some very heavy duty gear if you want a change of stopping them. A large overhead with a capacity of at least 500m of 50lb is a good start for most of the big sharks you will encounter. However, even with this heavy duty gear it quite possible to hook something that is unstoppable and will leave you scratching your head. The actual rig will need at least 6ft of at least 200lb wire, but I tend to go heavier as many sharks will simply bite through it. For hooks, I would recommend a large circle hook around the 8/0 to 10/0 size. Huge hooks, but we’re not dealing with little fish here!
Baits
The best baits are oily fish such as tuna and bonito, but the biggest shark I’ve ever caught off the beach was caught on a whole tailor. When we can’t catch our own bait, I just opt for a frozen sea mullet which can be found in most of your local tackle stores.
Safety
You have to consider that there is a real danger when dealing with a 100kg + shark and you should never take any risks. Avoid the pointy end at all costs and use the wave to help you leader the fish on the sand. I use circle hooks as these always hook the fish in the corner of the mouth and are easily removed with a very long set of pliers. Once a photo is taken, release the shark to swim away. Sharks are very resilient fish that release very well.
