Andrew asked:


trying to catch some sharks and some bigger fish maybe cobia and tarpon too. well were using sardines and were catching the catfish and i also caught three bonnethead sharks which are alot of fun. but im hoping for something bigger.. i know theres a trouph right off beach then theres sand bad then theres another trouph. if you can tell me more about what bait and what trouph and such. caught a pin fish and two lady fish should i use them?
yes trough sorry. anyone actually have some advise? night? morning? what bait??

James asked:


A few weeks ago me and my friend were at the pier, after several hours of fishing my friend hooked a 10 foot Tiger Shark. He was fighting it for 4 hours, finally he reeled it up to the pier, the pier was 40 foot above the water, so he reeled in the shark until it was EXACTLY 90 degrees below him (the shark was 40 foot below us). Basically he reeled it in as far he could, because the shark weighed like 800 pounds. The shark surfaced and people stood around taking pictures for several minutes, and then my friend cut the line. Someone on the pier started telling us that it didn’t count as catching the shark, because we were suppose to touch the leader with our hand (according to fishing tournament rules)! But the leader was 40 foot below us! What the hell is that all about??? Did it count as catching the shark???
I posted this question about a month ago, but i forgot to include ‘these’ additional details below (so i am reposting it):
1) This wasN’T a pier tournament, it was just us going out fishing to have fun
2) There was a basket on the pier, but the fish was 800 lbs, the basket was like four foot
3. forget tournament forget record, did it count as catching the fish? or did it count as my friend just standing there and waist 4 hours of his life?
4. That guy on the pier that told us it didnt count as catching the shark after we already released it, that was the first time we ever heard of anything like that
5. dragging it to shore and then going in the water and touchin the leader, we would be lucky if all we lost was only an arm
6. walking the shark to the shore we would have also got arrested because it specifically says no shark fishing because of the swimmers, so pretend we drag a 10 foot TIGER SHARK to the shore. There were at least 70 swimmers in the water that day.
7. After 4 hours of fighting the shark, we tired the shark out to the point that it WAS floating on top of the water 90 degrees below us, for like 5 min
8. The rule doesnt make sense, because if so, i caught a tarpon one time no leader, reeled it next to the boat, and without even having to touch the fish i snipped the line one millimeter away from the fish’s mouth, but that didnt count as a catch, because there was no leader. But on the other hand if i would have caught the same tarpon and had an-11 foot leader on my line, and touched the first five inches of that leader, and the other remaining 10.7 feet of it would have been in the water, it would have counted as a catch. Does that make sense???? No!
To Grand Master Basser,
It was tired on top of the water swishing its tail around, very slowly (you know what i mean), for me thats the definition floating! And by the way it did head for the pilings several times during the fight, even one time we thought we were gonna loose the fish.
thats the definition of* floating