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A Few Words on Sharks
and Shark fishing
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From our Captain
and 20 year veteran of Prince William Sound
waters
Captain Bill Steffen
Salmon Sharks
being the first cousin to the Great White and Mako
Sharks make it a voracious big game fish. Average
weight is 350 to 400 pounds and 8 feet in length,
and 500 pounds and 11 feet in length being a big
catch. Salmon sharks are highly migratory and range
throughout the north pacific. They migrate in to
Prince William Sound with the pink salmon,
returning in July, August and the first two weeks
of September, the best time too catch a shark. I
locate the sharks by looking for dorsal fins
cutting the surface or sharks jumping and thrashing
while feeding, but mostly rely on my color depth
sounder looking along steep deep structure for
aggregations of sharks.
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I fish with six foot stand up heavy action rods with Pen
20T International reels spooled with 130 pound brayed Kevlar
line. The leaders are two 16/0 Circle hooks 15 feet of 1/6
cable inside Vinyl tube with 12 feet of nylon shock cord. We
use whole pink Salmon for bait, either trolling off down
riggers while watching the Sharks swim up and take the bait
on an underwater TV Camera, or do a drop and retrieve. The
hook up is never the same, they have slammed the bait and
Spooled yards of line only to let go. Or followed the brom
ait right to the back of the boat and literally taken it
from my hand, but when the hooks are set you better hold on
with all you've got! The sharks are fast and strong, and
they like to sound for deep water in a thrashing spiral,
then stay down. It takes a lot of power too turn one and
using short fast pumps to get it to come up. They will be
burning line out, flip a 180 in a flash, and then slack line
coming your way whip another 180 and slam you to the rail.
Some sharks break water and thrash on the surface They have
jumped 3 feet out of the water and Landed on the gunnels of
the boat, Have gotten up and tail walked and also seem to
like to bite the side of the boat. The shark fights last 30
minutes to 2 hours depending on the shark and anglers as
most people tag team a shark, it takes a strong angler to
boat a salmon shark by himself or herself.
In Prince William Sound, 90 percent of sharks are female
therefore I promote catch and release. However, shark is
good eating, it has white meat the texture of tender pork
with a mild fish taste. Under Alaska fishing regulations
you're allowed one shark a day, two a year. You must keep
all edible parts of the shark so you will have 150 to 300
pounds or more of meat and four large fins to take home.
Captain Bill Steffen has worked with Ken Goldman of the
Virginia Institute of Marine Science and the Alaska dept. of
Fish and Game on shark research and shark leader
development. So Capt. Bill can fill your day with lots of
shark info. If you want more info on salmon sharks look at
this website: www.fakr.noaa.gov/oil/sharks.htm
We are now booking for the 2008 Salmon Shark fishing season
Let us plan the Shark
Fishing Adventure of a lifetime for you and your group
Contact Gary Mc Dowell at
info@cordovarose.com
or call 907 424 7673
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