# Shark Leader question....



## andrespurplerain (Dec 13, 2005)

Hi there 2cooler shark pros...I have a question. What kind of shark leader do you use for shark fishin from shore and how long should it be ? I have never boated or kayaked a bait out and am planning to do so real soon. I have redfished the area for years and am itchin to land a monster shark !


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## CAPSIZED (Aug 10, 2004)

500lb or better stainless steel stranded cable. I only use 12 inches or less and attach it to 500lb mono leader as seen in the pic. caught sharks up to 9' this way.


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## Bay Gal (Jun 1, 2004)

This is the standard we use. (thanks, gundoctor) Weight goes on the coastlock swivel.


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## gundoctor (May 20, 2004)

Bay Gal said:


> This is the standard we use. (thanks, gundoctor) Weight goes on the coastlock swivel.


Thank Skipjack Pam, I stole that from him.(I told him I was going to steal it)



andrespurplerain said:


> Hi there 2cooler shark pros...I have a question. What kind of shark leader do you use for shark fishin from shore and how long should it be ? I have never boated or kayaked a bait out and am planning to do so real soon. I have redfished the area for years and am itchin to land a monster shark !


I use a leader made like the diagram Bay Gal posted. Currently I am making the main body of the leader out of 1/16" 480# stainless cable. Its about 10-12ft long. 
The hook droops are made out of 3/32 stainless 900# cable and are 2 to 4ft long. I haven't seen it, but I have gotten creditable reports of something biting 480# cable hook droops in two.
All connections in my cable leaders, are backbraided and crimped.
I'm not a fan of short sections of cable tied to heavy mono like CAPSIZED suggests. If a shark happens to pick up part of the mono when it picks up the bait, you can get cut off. 1000# mono is real easy for even a small shark to bite in two. Smaller mono is even easier to cut. I'm not saying it won't work, just that I don't care for doing it that way.
How long to make a leader is determined by how long of a shark you think you can land with the tackle you are using. My general rule is length of the biggest fish I think I can handle + 2ft. Then I add that much heavy mono if I feel the need. A shark can cut your line with his tail also, that's the reason I use lots of cable.
For my casting leaders (up to 30# class line)I do things a little different. 
There I use a pulley rig that has about 4ft of 480# cable and 6ft of heavy mono(300# or heavier). Its not as good of a setup as my big rig leaders, but I ain't expecting to catch a freight train on that size rig either.


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## JANKEII (Feb 2, 2006)

Hey doc, whats a pulley rig?


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## floundergigging (Jul 13, 2005)

Use big bait for big fish. Gundoctor stated use a leader at least as long as the length of shark that you want to hook up with. At least with my experience the teeth cut the mono and the sharks body is like sandpaper and will sand your line. Good luck


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## surfcowboy (Jun 29, 2005)

whats up with everyone using big cable? the biggest i use is 275lb. ss backed with 250 to 400lb mono. I found that using all cable gets to be a pain in the butt, because when the shark raps up in it, it looks like a curly fry, it also tends to kink more that why i try to keep the ss at around 2ft long. i do have a couple of boat leaders that are 1000lb ss about 10ft long but i haven't caught a shark on them yet. 

the olny reason a use the big mono is for abrasion. my main line is between 30-40lb. BG. i have caught sharks that max out the test of that line easy, but only had two break offs. one was line failure and the other was leader failure. i was using coated wire and it pulled through the crimp, after that i never used coated wire again. 

I use both the quick link and the first method.

it took me five years to prefect my leader making and i'm still not done making changes.


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## CAPSIZED (Aug 10, 2004)

We landed this 9' hammerhead sat. using a small circle hook and 10 inches of 80# stranded cable. Stainless cable is very expensive so its up to you but I have never needed more than a couple of feet of it for any shark. I fished out of Kona a few times with a captian who caught many Tiger sharks over 1000lbs. He used 3' of steel cable and 20' of 500lb mono. I would rather spend the money on a good rod and reel.


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## SurfRunner (May 22, 2004)

CAPSIZED said:


> We landed this 9' hammerhead sat. using a small circle hook and 10 inches of 80# stranded cable. Stainless cable is very expensive so its up to you but I have never needed more than a couple of feet of it for any shark. I fished out of Kona a few times with a captian who caught many Tiger sharks over 1000lbs. He used 3' of steel cable and 20' of 500lb mono. I would rather spend the money on a good rod and reel.


I think that is wise. I think us Texans gear up way too heavy most of the time. Even to the point where it is works against us.


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## hogginhank (Aug 9, 2005)

I haven't fished from the beach for sharks before but I do a lot of boat fishing for sharks. I use about 12" of #240 single strand stainless wire. I connect the wire to 16/0 Mustad Circle hooks with a Hay Wire twist and the other end to a #275 swivel with a Hay Wire twist. The swivel is then connected to #200 mono for about 6' to 8' and another #275 swivel to connect your line to. It depends on the size of bait and the size of the sharks I am targeting as to how long I make the mono section. This has pulled in some reel big sharks. I get a lot of my leader material from www.leadertec.com

Good luck to you.


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## gundoctor (May 20, 2004)

CAPSIZED said:


> We landed this 9' hammerhead sat. using a small circle hook and 10 inches of 80# stranded cable. Stainless cable is very expensive so its up to you but I have never needed more than a couple of feet of it for any shark. I fished out of Kona a few times with a captian who caught many Tiger sharks over 1000lbs. He used 3' of steel cable and 20' of 500lb mono. I would rather spend the money on a good rod and reel.


Congrats on the nice hammer.

Cable ain't that expensive if you buy it right. Leader Tech, sells 25 meter coils of 480# stainless cable for about the same price they sell 100 meter coils of 500# mono. I'd 4 times rather have enough steel so the shark never touches any mono.
If you figure in the cost of replacing mono every year, a all cable leader that is still in good shape 4 years later is [email protected] cheap. If you take care of cable leaders, they will last that long. The hook droops generally take all the beating and are the part that wears out. 
You do replace the mono part of your leader every year don't you?
As far as a couple of ft of cable being enough, it is MOST of the time. Especially fishing out of a boat. Fishing from a boat, your bait is generally suspended from some kind of float.
On the beach can be a different story. You have the surf weight on bottom in the middle of the leader(at least mine is) with the bait at the end, going in whatever direction the current takes it. Some time the current will take the bait back on top of your leader, even wrapp it around the upper portion. If a shark hits the bait when its there, there is a good chance it will also pick up your leader. When that happens, if that upper part of the leader is mono, you get cut off. That is why I use enough steel to make sure my bait is never against any mono.
I've actually had this happen, except the shark got a mouth full of cable instead of mono. The hook droops had gotten wrapped aroung the upper part of my leader before the shark hit. If that part had been mono, I truly think I would have been cut off.

Putting all your money into a good rod and reel and skimping on other things seems a little foolish to me. Shark fishing is not a cheap sport and you need good equipment or you are going to loose a fish that you shouldn't. Good equipment includes a lot more than a good rod and reel.

Like Andrew said about us Texans, we tend to gear up heavier than needed. I'm probably just as guilty as any. BUT, if I hook a fish and loose it, I want to know that it was because I wasn't man enough to put that fish on the sand and not that I was too cheap to rig things up like I know they should be.
Having said that, don't get me wrong, I like to save as much money as I can. I just don't skimp where I think its important. Leaders are about as important as any other piece of gear you use.


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## gundoctor (May 20, 2004)

JANKEII said:


> Hey doc, whats a pulley rig?


A pulley rig is for casting. You use a clip(small hook) to attach your main baited hook to the swivel just above the surf weight. This keeps the bait and weight together during the cast and allows for much greater distance. 
When the bait hits the water, it comes loose from the surf weight and allows the weight to sink to bottom with the hook droop portion suspended from the pulley swivel. When a fish bites, it pulls the weight up against the pulley swivel and raises the weight off bottom.


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## SurfRunner (May 22, 2004)

gundoctor said:


> A pulley rig is for casting. You use a clip(small hook) to attach your main baited hook to the swivel just above the surf weight. This keeps the bait and weight together during the cast and allows for much greater distance.
> When the bait hits the water, it comes loose from the surf weight and allows the weight to sink to bottom with the hook droop portion suspended from the pulley swivel. When a fish bites, it pulls the weight up against the pulley swivel and raises the weight off bottom.


A pulley rig is strictly for casting.

As Gundoctor said, pulley rigs work great. You can double up a long 8 ft leader and make it hang 4 ft from the line when casting.

They work best when the bait is lighter than the lead your casting.


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## JANKEII (Feb 2, 2006)

Thanks guys,

I used that system all the time on the pier. had know idea what it was called


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