Fishing North Captiva Island, tips and tricks?

Asigg2006

Hello everybody, I am planning on going to north captiva island in early to mid march, and I am looking to get into some saltwater action. I have been doing tons of research on the island and I have seen some guys doing good for lots of species in later spring and other times of the year, but I rarely hear march. I am looking for anything to bend my rod, But I am extremely interested in pampano fishing, snook, and most of all, a shark. Sandbar, bull, bonnet head, whatever it is I am just obsessed with the idea of fighting in a medium sized shark from the surf. (I am 16 and I did make sure to get my saltwater fishing liscence and shore based shark fishing permit) 
Does anybody have any intel on good spots to go for sharks from the surf? Also general tips to catch as much fish in general as I can? I bought a pen battle 3 medium heavy 6000 combo, will this work for medium sized sharks? I have to be very particular with the rods I pick because they need to be packable. Preferably under 3 feet collapsed. Thank you everyone!

Kayak_Pete

OK, since no one has bothered, I will decloak and try to answer.  I have been to N. Captiva and I have caught many sharks, but not both.  I think your reel is fine and probably your rod will handle bonnetheads and some lemons and nurse sharks up to maybe 5-6'.  Two of the nastiest sharks I've ever hauled in were a sandbar and a bull, both about 6'.  I'm not sure you've quite got the equipment for those. I would spend time in the pass fishing the whole shoreline.  Several years ago, at the next pass north of you, I had a 5' blacktip pass about 2' from my feet.  Good luck my friend.  Shark fishing from the beach is a blast.  I would cut a ladyfish in half for bait.

Lostconch

Make sure you are up to date on the regs were you choose to fish. They vary from place to place depending on what the local tourist council thinks is best for tourist business. As you may have guessed I don't fish for sharks off the beach anymore. 

Asigg2006

Update; so I got back from my trip a few days ago and aside from the supposed red tide I did pretty good on north cap. I ended up catching a ton of sea trout on the gulf side at the sandbar on a vudu shrimp and tons of ladyfish, catfish, a couple Jack crevalle, and a whiting. Lots of dead redfish and black drum on the shore. I also fished the boats and fun docks and caught tons of mangrove snapper, gag grouper, mojarra, pin fish, and a snook. I also pulled a decent tarpon out of those docks. As far as the sharks go I spent anywhere from 20 to 30 hours on the surf, all day for sharks. I had 2 bites that I know for sure were sharks, but the only for sure bites I had were on fresh bled lady fish. They picked the bait up, ram about 20 feet and bit it in half just missing the hook both times. I think I should have halved them because I was using them whole. One of them was a serious shark because when I brought my wire in my 250 leader had a kink in it and as I looked closer it was a tooth bite, and almost half of the strands were cut through. That was a big fish. I fished both the sandbar and dolphin bay for sharks, but I never caught one. I spent a LOT of time out there too. I was fishing with a couple guys who caught 2 small blacktips on mullet heads. I paddled my bait out about 110 to 145 yards out, dropping in the deepest water I could see. Maybe the red tide had something to do with it but I’m not sure. Next year I am getting a couple more setups, a 10,500 penn slammer 4 with a tsunami carbon shield II blue water rod in heavy action and one other penn squall level wind conventional with a x heavy rod, still looking for a 2 piece conventional to travel with. Any other recommendations? Thank you 

DES51

Nice! Sounds like a successful trip.

larrywitt

Hey thanks for taking the time to post .Sounds like you had a great trip. That smile on your face  tells the whole story.
larrywitt

Kayak_Pete

I was wondering how that trip went.  Nice fish !

Next time, paddle out farther, use a frozen stingray as bait....but the only place I know that's got FS is 2 islands down at the Bait Box on Sanibel.

Now you're hooked!