Shrimp Trawler Fishing Action
Bob McNally 07.20.15
Commercial shrimpers usually trawl all night, clearing their nets and anchoring sometime in the morning. For this reason some of the best sharking in the coastal South is had at dawn through mid-day.
Top technique is to locate a group of trawlers, then run to ones covered with excited gulls and terns, which are drawn to boats as they haul their nets up from the deep. Casts made behind boats when “by-catch” is tossed overboard is almost sure to bring instant hook-ups from sharks. Tarpon, cobia, king mackerel, big jack crevalle, and little tunny are boated regularly, too.
It helps to have quality binoculars on board to scan the horizon looking for trawlers hauling up their catch. But when action is slow, anglers can still get into sharks and other fish by casting baits behind a trawler just dragging deep nets. Sharks, porpoises, and other fish species regularly follow trawlers, knowing that sooner or later something edible is likely to fall overboard or pop out of nets.
Sharks frequently are so ravenous that surface chugger plugs and streamer flies score nearly as well as natural baits.
