Shark Fishing Comp

Having spent that last few nights away on business I re-acquainted myself with Sky Sports (having got rid of it 4 years ago). So, on returning from a few sherbets with my customer I was pleased to see ?Fishing? advertised a bit later, so I stayed up to watch.

What I saw really turned my stomach. It was a shark fishing contest between the US and UK.

First, it was simply one Blue Shark being hauled in after another with absolutely no real ?fishing? interest (OK ? it is a ?sport? channel and it was a ?competition?). I turned over after 30 mins, but when I switched over an hour later, there they were, hauling away still.

All the fish caught were ?cut off?, leaving a wire trace and hook in them, even though Keith Arthur reassured us they would dissolve in 3-4 days.

When they twisted violently on ?landing? all the commentator (Keith) would say is how skilled the guys who helped cut the wire were, and that they could easily get tangled and get dragged in themselves (poor loves). Oh, and we should not worry about all the blood, that?s just their gills bursting and would soon repair.

Also the anglers were awarded more points if they landed the fish on lighter lines (I kid you not), which resulted in break offs with even more line trailing from them.

I found the whole thing totally distasteful in the extreme, and even worse, John Wilson was fishing in the event. Not what I would have attributed to him.

Yuk.

Have got this prog on my Sky+ HDD ready to watch. Shall I just delete Stu or shall I watch it just to be more informed? My wife's not that enamoured with fishing so I'll not watch it while she's around, it'll only stir up some anti-angling quizzing from her.

I totally agree with everything Stu states above, it wasn't entertaining, or skillful and with little respect shown to the fish. Keith Arthur and John Wilson should know better.

Ok guys, I'll watch it to check out what you say. Keith Arthur I'm not bothered about, quite often disagree with a lot that I hear him say. But Wilson's up there in the pantheons and I'll be shocked if he's done angling or himself a disservice.

some of the bigger fish are clased as caught when the leader is touched, the wire trace is then cut to let the fish go with minimum stress, the hooks will disolve very quickly (try sticking some in a glass of sea water).

ive not seen the program, so cant comment on the way they were handling the fish.

Angling for big salt water species such as Sharks, Marlin, Tuna etc is something you do once in your life, just for the experience. It does not require skill not water or sea craft. Just the ability of the boatman and a lot of brute force on you, the "anglers" part.

It also requires a lot of money.

I have caught the odd marlin and shark in my life and quite frankly if I had all the money in the world I would not want to do this sort of fishing ever again.

I would much prefer to have a bash for species that take a little skill, such as roach, wild seatrout, barbel or even the odd day for salmon.

And you don't get bloody sea sick!

Most of the biggest saltwater game fish in the world have been caught by people who's money compensates for what little skill they may or may not possess.

If the wire trace is cut, and left trailing, couldn't that fish get it tethered in debris, or a wreck, before it dissolves?

Well, that was my thought Terry.

The bit that really got to me was awarding extra points for catching on lighter lines. What sort of fish care is that promoting ??

most of the lines are cut very close to the hook, i caught a pollock saturday night that had 2 foot of line trailing from its mouth,as well as my hook in its mouth, i cut it off near its mouth as the hook was very deep, and it swam off with out a care.

how light a line were they using?

you'd have to take that point up with the IGFA stu.

Alan, you mean these guys cut a wire trace very close to the shank of a hook, in a sharks jaws!

In all the programs i have seen,if they have to cut the line, yes.

on some programs i have seen them unhook them, it cant be no differant to unhooking tope and congor.

Guys, isn't there a danger here of making judgements on a branch of the sport we dont really understand or have much experience of?

Any big game/shark anglers out here to give their perspective?

Think some of you guys need to look at the wider picture. The only way of anglers not injuring sharks is not to fish for them. Then if that happens who is going to look after the sharks welfare. The commercial long liners the finners etc. Shark anglers in the main work hard to preserve the species because if they dont then no sharks left to catch. Its that simple.
Now to address one or two points made above. Hooks used in that competition are designed especially to rust out in days fact.
50lb class is not a light line matched with the correct rod and reel. Of course lines will break some sharks jump like Marlin obstacles fray lines.
Feel free to comment on "lack of Skill" when you have tried it. Experts make everything look easy.Thats why they are in the media as opposed to us ordinary anglers.
No different to a Tope or Conger well probably not if Tope and conger went to over 200lb maybe.
Brave or foolhardy guy who is prepared to bring a 200lb plus shark onto a 30 foot boat still alive!
Plus what additional harm is done to the shark in boating it just to remove the hook.
I have caught several sharks with hooks still intact and they do not appear to be any the worse for it.
In case anyone thinks i`m dreaming i have caught personally over 200 sharks from African beaches and been present when at least another 600 have been landed and unhooked.
I am an avid beach shark angler and conservationist. The two go together very well. If i thought that leaving a hook in a fish was going to condem it to a lingering death then i would not fish for them at all. The shark compettion shown on Sky has done a great deal to preserve sharks not kill them or inflict unnessecary pain and suffering.

cheers Steve.
check out Steves website at www.molamola.co.uk

Thanks Steve, that was helpful.

Steve - I watched it as I said I would and apart from the question of the traces/hooks left in, I thought it was informative and not any more harmful to sharks as any other branch of our sport (apart from impaling livebaits that is!).
As long as these hooks dissolve as they say then I don't see anything wrong with it.

As for the two b.s lines, one was 30lb and the other 50lb. I haven'y done much seafishing but correct me if I'm wrong there are numerous line class records for the same species aren't there?

Hi Guys
First as a newbie to this site i would like to say its a pleasant change to put a point of view and not get slagged off unlike so many other forums.
Nigel your right about line class but thats mainly boats and IGFA record hunters. For bigger species line classes are usually 50lb 80lb and 130lb. However from the beaches we tend to use 30Lb class gear when sufficient experience has been gained. Most of the sharks my clients catch in Africa are landed on 30lb or 40lb line using 14 foot rods and Penn 555 sized reels.