HOW TO INTERPRET THE BEHAVIOUR OF SHARKS

Sharks can be individual characters, but do have common traits. Blues are more curious than porgies. They will often come right up to the boat, swim around having a look at what the source of smell is, and they might even nose and bite the dubby sacks or bins.

You can drop a bait out to one of these and they might take it, some won’t. A good trick here is to wave your arms at the shark and it will go deeper. Now lift the closest bait by the boat and let it drop back, and there’s a good chance it will take it as it falls back through the water.

Blues tend to stay in the scent cone but may go deep and not take a bait after being seen. Shake the bins and dubby sacks to release a flush of strong scent and bits in the water, and this will heighten their sense to come in and feed.

Sometimes blues come up to look at the balloons on the surface – keep your eyes peeled for fins. When the shark fin disappears, wind in a few feet of line then let the bait go back out again to its original position to advertise the bait to the shark. A blue may take as its retrieved, but will mostly take as the bait is trotted back.

Porbeagles may show with their fin cutting surface water and then dive. These fish, in my experience, do not always take a bait whatever you do. Porbeagles tend to stay deeper and will come in and stay under the boat, ignoring the balloon-suspended baits and stay hidden. However, if you have a spare rod ready tackled up, periodically drop a freelined bait literally over the side and let it sink, just to see. A porgie sat under the boat will usually snaffle this and is indicative of a porbeagle that has been feeding off trawler spill.

TOP TRICKS

The mark of a good skipper is that he’ll have at least two, and more likely, three sacks or bins of rubby-dubby over the side – one off the stern, one up by the cabin, and one on the opposite uptide gunnel. This spreads the width and increases the depth of the dubby trail as it gets further away from the boat.

If you take note, he’ll rotate the refilling of the bins usually in sequence. If you’re the closest bait in, then this is a good time to replace the bait with a fresh one, especially if you happen to be fishing right by the replenished bin. Wait until the fresh bin or sack goes in the water, then drop your new bait in and trot it back to where it was before, but pause it and drag it back towards you again a couple of feet a few times. Both blues and porbeagles respond to the fresh, strong smell, following it into the boat, see the fresh bait rising and falling, and take it confidently.

Try reeling in about 20ft of line every 10 minutes or so on each individual bait. This sudden movement can excite a shark that is otherwise uninterested and just swimming in the scent lane.

You could also try dropping small chunks of mackerel, about an inch square, over the side every 30 seconds or so for a few minutes. These sink deeper than the dubby and can often bring up a shark that is swimming well below the scent cone. The skipper can fire up the boat engine occasionally, which can pull sharks in, especially porgies.

If nothing is happening, try tapping the side of the boat periodically. Sharks love rhythmical sounds and come in to investigate. Catching and releasing mackerel also puts vibrations in the water that will attract predators.

There are many things shark anglers can do to help improve the results during a day’s sharking. A hard-working skipper with a lazy crew will never do as well as one that sees a full team effort. Do your bit, work hard and you’ll leave your mark on the shark. ■