September in Charlotte Harbor is a time of calm water, hot temperatures, lots of baitfish and very few fisherman. It is also the best time of year for shark fishing only minutes from any boat ramp! Yes, in waters less than 5 feet and as deep as 20, large sharks including bull, black tip, nurse, sharp nose and a few others are there in large numbers. What do I mean about large sharks? How about a 250 pound bull shark or perhaps smaller ones around 150 pounds. No boat ride out into the gulf is necessary this month.
Anyone with a boat big enough to float can hook up! Imagine being in a 14’ Jon boat being dragged by a monster bull shark. Yep, September is no month for jets ski’s or water skiing!
What attracts the sharks is simply a large food source. Fish and aquatic creatures of all types have been breeding in the aquatic grasses all summer. Throw a cast net anywhere in the harbor and you will have something alive in your net. In open water, it will be anything from jellyfish to baitfish and in the shallows, seahorses to pilchards. Sharks are also following schools of ladyfish and jacks.
Most times when focusing on sharks I ride the harbor looking for bird activity and not necessarily set up on holes. Sheets of baitfish are a good place to drift through, any serious blasting by mackeral will have sharks under them as well.
On a recent fishing trip with my grandson Gavin we seen diving birds in 8’ of water around green daymarker “77” in the Matlacha direction. We had live ladyfish for bait. I generally like to fish two rods with steel leader and one with mono in case a tarpon passes by. Two live baits and one cut ladyfish out and we set at anchor for an hour. A dead bait with steel got whomped and missed and shortly later the mono rod with an 18” live ladyfish buckled and the drag was burning! Gavin reached for the rod but couldn’t pull it out of the rod holder, meanwhile the shark is dumping the spool! I grab the rod, hand to Gavin, start the motor, run to the bow and pull the anchor. As we chase the fish down, Gavin gains some line and the 9 year old puts serious heat on the fish. While coaching my grandson to not let go of the rod the shark takes a sudden lunge, pulls Gavin to the gunnel and I grab his pants as he was headed into the drink! Normally, he has a PFD on but we were at anchor on a calm day and it was 93 degrees! The next words out of Gavin’s mouth was “grandpa I think I better put on my life preserver”. These words I will never forget and another sudden pull and the line snapped! We were fishing 8’ of 80# line with no steel on this rod and over 6 feet of line was scrapped up. Without seeing the shark we knew it was at least 6 feet and definitely the fight of a bull shark that I guesstimate at 150 pounds!
For baits, live ladyfish are great and live mullet can’t be beat. These are big baits and attract the big predators. Frozen sardines work but will attract smaller sharks and plenty of catfish. Chumming will attract more sharks near your boat for sure.
Six feet of water on the outside of the flats are a great place to set up on an outgoing tide as well. Sharks will patrol our flats under the cover of dark water on high tide and with receding water drop back to the outer edges on their way into deeper water; a perfect place to intercept your bait.
On a different trip, a live mullet got munched in the middle of a school of ladyfish that were splashing on the surface. As it often happens, the shark bit the mono line but luck allowed us to get it just close enough for a photo before bite off and my guess was 250 pounds! That was in 10 feet of water!
Shark attacks are common on Charlotte Harbor! Most are sub-surface and none are on humans, thank goodness!
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