Shark Fishing in Panama City Beach

I walked down to the city pier July 30, 2007, in Panama City Beach, to do a little fishing. I paid the $5 fee to fish from the pier, and walked out over the Gulf. There seemed to be frenzy at the end of the pier.

It was a shark hullabaloo. Four men were blowing up garbage bags, rigging lines with cables and 6/0 hooks, and looking professional and serious in a grandiose way. They fielded questions flying at them from on-lookers as fast as they could. The men were causing quite a stir.

They were getting ready to shark fish, waiting for an easterly wind. The inflated bags were tied to their lines, to carry the bait farther out than they could cast.

Their routine got old, and more humorous as I listened to them pontificate the finer points of shark fishing. It came to a head when a bright face child asked in amazement, "How many sharks have you caught?"

"None yet," the man mumbled. He was then back at his line tying slip knots and checking hooks and triangular weights.

As it turns out, one of the kids with the men caught a twelve inch shark the previous night. That gave them fever to shark fish, and a local told them how to do it. Now, they were the experts, from nearby in Alabama, telling everyone on the pier how to shark fish.

The local fisherman caught a shark right away. He was only fishing about 125 feet off the pier. While the shark "experts" were talking, the gentleman's drag started clicking. His line was going out. He gave the shark time to take the bait and keep it in his mouth. Frequently sharks regurgitate, or push their food around before consuming it. The shark did spit out his bait, but picked it up and the line started out again. This time, the shark was hooked.

The man reeled and fought the shark for ten minutes to get him to the pier. Once he was beneath the pier, the newbie shark fishing crew sprung into action. They had a huge, brass treble hook on the end of a rope. The objective was to snag the shark in the mouth or underside with the treble and haul him up on the pier.