# Crystal Beach Sharks



## ranger-370 (Jul 13, 2010)

I have never fished the Crystal Beach area but whenever I surf fish I always like to lay out at least one shark rod with a big bait. Have any of you had any luck along Crystal Beach?


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## btsander (May 24, 2012)

Yes sir and me and the family are going to try this weekend even with the wind being somewhat strong we are still going to give it a shot.


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## fishing-guru (Feb 2, 2011)

Caught a couple of small blacktips while trying to catch reds last weekend. There coming around for the summer.


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## bigfost (Oct 11, 2004)

I don't usually fish the surf in that area, but I do kayak fish there. There are usually plenty of sharks a few hundred yards offshore.


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## Spectaker (Oct 24, 2011)

I'm guessing seaweed on Crystal Beach isn't nearly as bad as the Surfside? I have a buddy headed down there today and I'm on the fence about going. Wouldn't make it there till late so I was going to longline for the night and go wade in the morning.


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## bigfost (Oct 11, 2004)

Seaweed looks pretty bad on the beach cam.

http://www.cbwebcam.com/beach/beachcamalt.htm


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## Spectaker (Oct 24, 2011)

Mmm. Beer and BBQing it is then.


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## fishing-guru (Feb 2, 2011)

How is the seaweed if you are kayaking a couple of hundred yards off the beach.


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## bigfost (Oct 11, 2004)

fishing-guru said:


> How is the seaweed if you are kayaking a couple of hundred yards off the beach.


The seaweed usually doesn't affect us out there. Sometimes there will be enough to snag on the balloons and give us some false clicks, but most of the time it just floats right on past.

In the several years I've been fishing out there, I can only remember one day the weed was bad enough to really be an aggravation. Even at that, we were still able to fish.


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## surfguy (May 17, 2011)

Are you using balloons to keep your bait off the bottom or just for marking?


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## bigfost (Oct 11, 2004)

surfguy said:


> Are you using balloons to keep your bait off the bottom or just for marking?


We use the balloons to fish baits higher in the water column. Most of us fish at least two baits, with one on the bottom and one under a balloon.


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## surfguy (May 17, 2011)

Interesting.. A couple more questions if you don't mind:
How long a leader do you use to make sure the bottom bait reaches?
What kind of balloons and where can I get some?


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## bigfost (Oct 11, 2004)

surfguy said:


> Interesting.. A couple more questions if you don't mind:
> How long a leader do you use to make sure the bottom bait reaches?
> What kind of balloons and where can I get some?


You may have misunderstood. We only fish one bait per rod. I was saying most of us fish one rod with a bottom bait and a second rod with a balloon bait.

Most of the people I fish with are fishing 400# mono leaders between 5 and 6 feet long. They have to be short enough we can cast them sitting down in the kayaks.

We get an occasional fish bit off on the mono leaders, but the 400# and circle hooks will land most sharks.

Any dollar store has party balloons.


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## HuntinforTail (Mar 29, 2011)

bigfost is talking about fishing out of his kayak beyond the breakers, not about fishing from the beach with a surf rod. If there is any more than a minimal amount of weed in the water, fishing from the beach will be very hard. Floating balloons from the beach isn't going to work either. Your best bet from the beach would be kayaking baits or casting.

There are lots of sharks caught in that area every year. A couple bulls over 8 feet long were caught right near rollover pass last year in casting distance from the sand.


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## surfguy (May 17, 2011)

Yes, I did misunderstand. It sounded like some high tech secret fishing technique you would see in a National Geographic documentary  Why would anyone fish 2 baits on one line with a 10c balloon, duh!


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## ranger-370 (Jul 13, 2010)

Thanks everyone. We are trying Crysrtal Beach this year because the weed was so bad in the Surfside-Quintana area last year that you couldn't keep a hook down using a motor block for a weight...LOL We will also have our boat and fish East Bay some but I love surf fishing for reds and specs and also like to lay out at least on large shark rod.


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