Fishing

SHARKING OFF MONTAUK

One of the great attractions for fishing Montauk waters is our the reputation as a fertile hunting ground for sharks. Makos, blues, threashers, occasionally even a great white - Montauk offers as many opportunities to nail sharks as any port on the East Coast. Of course, Montauk's been shark central since the first days of "Jaws", some 20 years ago. It's common knowledge that the fictional town of Amity - the setting for the novel - was a thinly disguised version of Amagansett. More importantly for us, the central character of "Quint" - the mad charter boat captain - was based on our own Capt. Frank "Monster Man" Mundus, skipper of the Cricket II. Mundus was well known as the pioneer who popularized shark fishing in these waters - and was as well a master self-promoter. Say what you want about the old cuss, but at a time when all other Montauk captains would rather sit in their slips than hook anything as useless as a shark, Mundus refined the techniques for finding and landing big sharks. Well, 20 years later times have certainly changed. Now Mundus enjoys a well earned retirement in sunny Hawaii, and every captain in the harbor makes a fair share of their living catching sharks.

For those of you who don't know the ins and outs of sharking, you should know a few facts. First, forget about worrying that a shark is going to nibble on your toes while you're wadding in the great Atlantic. You've got a better chance of being hit by lightening, than of being attacked by a shark close to shore. Shark fishing is done 10 miles and more off-shore, because that's where the fish is, bub! If they were any closer, no captain would waste his time, or fuel, cruising off-shore for them.

Second, sharks, as ferocious as they are, are not particularly hard to catch once you've found them. The basic technique is pretty simple. Dump a few 5 gal. buckets of ground bunker into your wake, setting up a thick, oily slick of blood and guts, cut the engines and wait. Soon the fins will show, hopefully mako or threasher, more likely the common blue shark. You don't have to tease them with live bait or fool them into striking with any fancy technique. If they're hungry, which they almost always are, they'll take whatever you've got. Then it's all a whirl of slashing teeth, churning tails, and dead doll's eyes rolling in their tiny brained head! If you're luckly you'll hook a mako, and she'll run, jump, leap and fight you every inch of the way to the boat. A threasher may head straight to the bottom, and you'll have to pump it's 300 lb. dead weight from the water's floor. A dumb as a post blue shark, will simply stare at you while you wrestle it aboard. It's exciting, frantic, heart pounding action all around.

The first blue sharks of this season were reported in our waters in early June. Capt. Joe McBride, operating the MY MATE out of the illusturous Montauk Yacht Club, was the first local charter boat captain to hook up with the ravenous creators. Like all knowlegable captains, he let his party play with the critters for a bit, before cutting each and every one of them loose. Unlike makos and threashers, it's senseless to bring a blue back to the dock, unless it's a potential record setter. After all, what are you going to do with it once you've got it home? You can't eat them, they make poor pets, and nobody's got an aquarium big enough to hold one!

Seriously, fish conservation, even for sharks, is an important issue in these waters. Over fishing, by recreational as well as commercial fishermen, has already driven many local specis to the brink of extinction. One prominent example is swordfish. When was the last time a local boat brought back a rod and reel swordfish? No recently, that's for sure. Over harvesting by Japanese long liners in the 1970's decimated the stock, leaving Montauk with only memories of broadbills boated. Cod, flounder, marlin, even the humble bunker, were once taken for granted local catch - now harder to find than a captain willing to share his favorite loran numbers! Certainly cycles in fish reproduction have some bearing on the fluctuating supply of specises, but man's hand in the equation cannot be forgotten.

Whats this got to do with sharks? Simple - slaughter enough of them, and sure as the sun rises in the morning, you'll find fewer of them the next time out. If we've learned anything over the years, it's that there simply is no such thing as an inexhastible supply of any fish, even sharks. Because they are easy to catch, and make for an exciting day, some anglers are tempted to keep cranking them in until the novelty wears off. Please don't! Pursue them, fight them, keep the good sized mako for eating, and cut the rest loose to bite another day. They may be the most ferocious hunters in their natural kingdom, but man is the ultimate predator.

CHARTER BOATS SPECILIZING IN SHARK FISHING

MY MATE - CAPT. JOE MCBRIDE
JOY SEA - CAPT. CHUCK MALLINSON
FISHHOOKER - CAPT. OTTO HASELMAN
ALLYSA ANN - CAPT. BILL RICCA
FLORENCE B - CAPT JEFF PICKIN