10-03-2010, 08:02 PM
Very good points, TD.
I have similar experiences in the areas around Port Aransas, Tx. I have seen 5' sharks travel at extremely high speed picking off small bait under the pier lights at night. They don't even slow down to test or chew in the 2' -4' water unlike bigger sharks, but make rapid sweeps and head back out into the dark before you even know what happened. Even very heavy line is cut or snapped under such force, and I have seen tackle torn loose and lost.
Definately don't want to carry fish on a stringer, even during daylight. Your feet and legs need to be out the water at depths over 2' on a foot rest in a pontoon (not a tube) made of solid material rather than inflatable. I used high density foam for pontoons in these cases. There is great advantage using this method when the flounder are running as the flats will be covered almost solid with them. You can avoid sting ray hazards and do some gigging with lights or regular fishing using such a setup without going very deep and I was lucky to never have a problem with sharks.
The safest, simplest way was to wait for a tanker to pass through the channel at port A during the November run. This causes up to 3' of water behind to be sucked away from the flats bordering the channel, exposing the flapping flounder. Crowds of gigers would then move in rapidly and pick them off quickly before the large trailing wave would flood the shallows again.
Porta
[quote TubeDude][cool][#0000ff]Great fishing all around the coast there. Love the Panama City area.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]BUT...you really gotta be nuts to tube in that area. Bull sharks and lemon sharks both come into very shallow water. I am sure you have seen them while wade fishing. Lemon sharks are not nearly as dangerous but they have been known to bite folks, especially if they are dragging some fish on a stringer. And bull sharks are responsible for more attacks every year than great whites. There also used to be a few tiger sharks in the area. They come in very close at night but not as much during the daytime. They get BIG and they are fearless.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I have never tubed that area just because of the sharks. I had enough problems with them even in a large boat. There were places where we could not fish because everything we hooked got "hit" by bull sharks. I would not have wanted to be IN the water, even in a steel float tube.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Be careful and be safe. Hopefully we will read lots more posts from you...without teeth marks.[/#0000ff][/quote]
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I have similar experiences in the areas around Port Aransas, Tx. I have seen 5' sharks travel at extremely high speed picking off small bait under the pier lights at night. They don't even slow down to test or chew in the 2' -4' water unlike bigger sharks, but make rapid sweeps and head back out into the dark before you even know what happened. Even very heavy line is cut or snapped under such force, and I have seen tackle torn loose and lost.
Definately don't want to carry fish on a stringer, even during daylight. Your feet and legs need to be out the water at depths over 2' on a foot rest in a pontoon (not a tube) made of solid material rather than inflatable. I used high density foam for pontoons in these cases. There is great advantage using this method when the flounder are running as the flats will be covered almost solid with them. You can avoid sting ray hazards and do some gigging with lights or regular fishing using such a setup without going very deep and I was lucky to never have a problem with sharks.
The safest, simplest way was to wait for a tanker to pass through the channel at port A during the November run. This causes up to 3' of water behind to be sucked away from the flats bordering the channel, exposing the flapping flounder. Crowds of gigers would then move in rapidly and pick them off quickly before the large trailing wave would flood the shallows again.
Porta
[quote TubeDude][cool][#0000ff]Great fishing all around the coast there. Love the Panama City area.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]BUT...you really gotta be nuts to tube in that area. Bull sharks and lemon sharks both come into very shallow water. I am sure you have seen them while wade fishing. Lemon sharks are not nearly as dangerous but they have been known to bite folks, especially if they are dragging some fish on a stringer. And bull sharks are responsible for more attacks every year than great whites. There also used to be a few tiger sharks in the area. They come in very close at night but not as much during the daytime. They get BIG and they are fearless.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I have never tubed that area just because of the sharks. I had enough problems with them even in a large boat. There were places where we could not fish because everything we hooked got "hit" by bull sharks. I would not have wanted to be IN the water, even in a steel float tube.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff][/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Be careful and be safe. Hopefully we will read lots more posts from you...without teeth marks.[/#0000ff][/quote]
[signature]