From World Records to Baby Blacktips, Sarasota is Shark-Fishing Paradise

The mystique of shark fishing lies no farther than a couple miles off the Sarasota beaches, where Spanish mackerel dart and Capt Jonnie Walker’s boat prowls for gamefish.

As Walker fished for mackerel during a trip this week, free-lining sardines, an array of sharpnose and blacknose sharks up to 4 feet in length cranked lines, splitting the Gulf waters and making for intense light-tackle action.

Although Sarasota-area anglers have long been accustomed to monster sharks, the possibility of anything from a two-foot blacktip shark to world records are possible.

In 2006, Bucky Dennis of Gardens of Gulf Cove, brought back an unofficial world-record 1,262-pound hammerhead, according to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. The article said Dennis caught the monster off of Boca Grande, just south of Sarasota.

But where does the official world record come from?

That’s right. Sarasota.

In 1982, Allen Ogle caught the record 991-pound hammerhead.

Ah, the possibilities.

“You can catch them out on hard bottoms and artificial reefs – they’re around everywhere,” Walker said.

Those from states such as Minnesota, Colorado, New York or other northern states long to vacation in Sarasota, and travel thousands of miles for a chance at saying they caught a shark.

“They’ve never caught one before,” Walker said. “It’s the whole mystique.”

Who Needs a G.P.S.? Try Triangulation

There's good news in the world of Florida fishing for anglers without a G.P.S. -- triangulation.

To remember a honey hole, Capt. Jonnie still uses triangulation, a method in which an angler picks three spots on shorelines far in the distance, and once he or she has followed each point and is at the "cross-hairs" of all three, the artificial reef or ledge is below the boat.

For example, an angler can mark a spot by finding -- a tree in front of a house with a high chimney (a great example of a marker) at 12 o'clock, a water tower at three o'clock, and a channel marker at six o'clock.

The angler can make a note of an artificial reef, for example, by jotting down these three points.

On the way to the spot, find one such "marker", then follow a line to the next marker, and finally to the third, and you have triangulated your position. You can feel like a seasoned fishing veteran and war strategist simultaneously.

"That's the way we used to do it years before there were condos on the beach," Capt. Jonnie said.

So for those who cannot afford a G.P.S., this "old-school" method is effective and, in its own way, a tad adventurous.