The summer is a testing time for fishing the beach! The weather is never predictable, the beach even less so. No reason to give up! Just because it is difficult is no reason to default. In fact, the more difficult it is, the more rewarding it will be.

So let us begin. Where does one fish? "The beach" you say. Ok, which 50 yards of the 25 miles of beach between St Augustine Inlet and the St Johns River do you want to fish?

Yep, the secret of fishing the beach is not in the fishing, it is in the walking! Walking the beach at low tide, finding out the lie of the sea bottom is the most important step in the fishing process. This is good, because it gives us the credibility to call fishing a sport and not just a recreation!

So what are we looking for during the low tide walk? Just watch the waves. Usually what you see are the waves breaking a few yards out, then the resultant foamy waves reform and rebreak closer to the shore. Where it first breaks is a sand bar, where it reforms is a slough (pronounced slew}. If you were to walk out from the beach you would first struggle through the deeper water of the slough then climb up onto the bar where the water can be only inches deep. Try Shark Diving

So once you have identified the sandbars, the big break is finding the gaps in the sandbar, the spots where the fish will find the deeper water and follow the rising tide into the sloughs. You find these when the waves do not break out at the bar but roll all the way in to the beach. When you find it, mark it carefully with a beach landmark. It is incredible how different it will look at high tide! Once you identify the gap, plan to fish in the gap itself and just inside the sandbar on either side of the gap.

Ok! We are halfway there with the where, now what about the when? My experience is the two hours before and after first and last light are the most consistent fishing of the day, while the two hours before and two hours after high tide are the most productive choice of tide. So, put the two together, you get an early morning high tide (that also means an evening high in most places) as the best time. Try Shark Diving

(If you are planning your vacation, how do you know when the tides will be? Actually, it's not that difficult, early morning and evening high tides will normally follow the full and new moons, and every calendar has those dates marked!)

In the three months of summer you will find whiting, pompano, bluefish, Spanish mackerel, kingfish, trout, flounder, redfish, and drum. You will also find shark, skate, catfish and crabs. It will be a race who will get your bait first, but whichever wins, it will be fun, and you will be the final winner! Get out there and fish. Try Shark Diving

Traveling and Vacation for me is is such an expense but one thing I can't refuse is when someone with a sweet voice asks you to. Specially if it's someone close to you heart, someone so pretty.

During those times when she asks me to to somewhere romantic or travel to a place we haven't been yet I always disagree because of the fact that i will be spending a lot of money and second I am such a homesick person. So most of the time i like resting at home when i am not doing anything at all.

I would rather sleep than taking a vacation or put my Small Reading Glasses on and read some books. For me my bedroom is the best place to be. Aside from that I consider vacations as another work to be done specially when preparing things before going out, one of the things I hate the most.

Everytime I go out of my house I forget 1 or 2 things. It's probably the effect of “Information Overload”, keeping your mind with busy thoughts. One of the things i keep on forgetting aside from the names of the people I use to know are my eyeglasses to the point that everytime we travel to another place I keep on buying new ones. It has been a habit for me to visit an eyeglass shop, check the Men's Reading Glasses section and buy a new pair eyeglasses for me to use for the rest of the vacation.

Sometimes it becomes an adventure spending hours and hours walking in the street tolook for shops that are selling Inexpensive Reading Glasses under $20 like we were hunting for a hidden treasure. From that activity alone we just consider it as date because afterwards we watch a movie and have a great dinner after accomplishing the first mission of finding a new pair of eyeglasses as another unforgetful souvenir.

December has been a very quiet month for sharks for us so this newsletter is going to be a little brief, maybe a good thing as I am feeling too much in the Holiday mode!

Generally this time of year we begin our off-shore trips to dive with mako and blue sharks, but as last year, the summer winds have keep us off the water and we have only managed one trip. The weather was fantastic, but we got skunked and failed to see a shark. This doesn’t happen very often to us so when it does it serves as a reminder that we are looking in a huge blue desert for sharks as well as makes us appreciate even more when we do see them!

As we were land bound we managed to do a lot of kelp diving to have a look at the small endemic cat shark species we find along our coast. Most people want to see the big glamorous sharks but we also really enjoy seeing the little ones. The species we were seeing were the puff adder shy sharks, striped cat sharks, brown shy sharks, the beautiful leopard cat sharks and once or twice when we were lucky, the spotted-gulley shark. The gully sharks can get as large as 1,8 meters, but the others generally are not longer than 1 meter.

The summer months also attract other migratory shark species to False Bay and these can be caught as by catch by traditional beach seine net fishermen. I have written about this before, but for those who don’t know we measure, tag and then release them after they are caught. This past month 3 bronze whalers were caught as well as a tremendous amount of different ray species. These included Diamond rays, Duck bill rays, Bull rays and the Lesser Sandshark. The fishermen are also not allowed to keep Steenbras which is a collapsed fish species. We are able to measure and tag these. Some of them have been the largest we have measured which is a promising sign. And lastly amongst the by catch there has been a small amount of smooth hound sharks. These have mostly all been too small to tag but we were able to release them back into the water. This species has been particularly hard hit by commercial fishermen and the stocks are decreasing at an alarming rate. Unfortunately there have been no fishing restrictions placed on them and their status is only going to get worse. Shark Cage Diving

Smooth hound sharks are thought to make up a large proportion of the white shark’s diet. The decreasing population of smooth hounds is coincidental with white shark sightings increasing close to shore…interesting…!

A few months ago we were able to catch up with a friend of ours who is doing his PhD study on Wobbegong sharks. I do not know much about wobbys and I was fascinated to hear about Charlie’s study as well as the sharks. Ultimately Charlie’s project will aid in recommending sustainable fishing of wobbegongs. At this time there are no restrictions in place. Charlie has kindly written a little about wobbegongs as well as a little about his project. Shark Cage Diving

Wobbegongs in peril!

Wobbegongs are cryptic, bottom-dwelling sharks that occur in warm-temperate to tropical waters of the western Pacific. They inhabit rocky and coral reefs or sandy bottoms, from the intertidal area to depths of at least 110 m. Wobbegongs are best distinguished by their flattened head and body, large, nearly terminal mouth situated in front of the eyes. They got their names ‘wobbegongs’ from the dermal lobes in aborigines which can be seen around the mouth and sides of the head. Out of 7 different species of wobbegong sharks worldwide, 6 are found in Australian waters while NSW has two wobbegong species swimming along its coast: the spotted wobbegong and the ornate or banded wobbegong. Some members of the wobbegong family can attain a size of 3 m or more and should be treated with respect as they can move surprisingly quickly and may attack if provoked. Wobbegongs have long, dagger-like teeth for gripping prey which can inflict painful wounds.

Wobbegongs often escape observation by snorkellers and spear fishers due to their excellent camouflage and behaviour of lying motionless on the bottom during the daylight hours. Although further research is necessary to accurately determine biological characteristics such as longevity, fecundity, age and size at maturity, sex structures and possible migrations wobbegongs are believed to feed nocturnally on a variety of bottom-dwelling bony fishes and invertebrates such as octopuses. These sharks are assumed to be ovoviviparity (young are released alive after hatching internally), and have litter sizes of up to 20 or more. The size at birth is about 20 cm.

While wobbegongs are frequently seen by divers and spearos, little is known about their role in the inshore marine ecosystem. It has been recognised that the biology, life history or population sizes of either spotted or banded wobbegong has never been looked at. The aim of our research is to fill the knowledge gap (in biology and ecology) of both species of wobbegong found in New South Wales. Shark Cage Diving

Sharks are really fascinating creatures! Feared by mankind for their fierce eating habits and their vicious look, but still are we so intrigued by this majestic creature. Sharks have become a rather popular specie; constantly to be seen in news reports and in Hollywood movies, hunted by some, researched by the shark lovers and with shark cage diving increasing in popularity all around the world, especially in South Africa, people can’t seem to get enough about the king of the ocean. On that note, below are a couple of interesting things about sharks you didn’t know and would probably intrigued when reading it. Shark Cage Diving

• There are more than 360 shark species, but only four of them present a threat to humankind and are known to attack humans: The Great White Shark, Bull Shark, Tiger Shark and the Oceanic Whitetip Shark. Most of the times these attacks are provoked and a lot of the times they are even mistaken. There are other shark species that have attacked, but has hardly ever been the cause of death.

• Sharks don’t always bite, just sometimes. Unlike humans sharks can not eat continuously in a row, so most often they bite to determine if the object is worth their digestive time. If they’ve bitten it and don’t think it is worth their while they will leave it and find something better. It is almost like us people inspecting a menu deciding what to eat. If we aren’t satisfy we’ll just look for something else or find another restaurant. Shark Cage Diving

• According to experiments it has been concluded that sharks may be afraid of dolphins. To top that there have been stories that dolphins have protected humans from sharks before. Mythbusters tested this theory by putting a mechanical, made-up dolphin where a great white shark was feeding near a seal cutout and raw bait. But instead of the shark going for the bait or dolphin he avoided both of them.

• It is possible for female sharks to reproduce and give birth without having any physical contact with a male shark. Not always, but sometimes. One particular case has been documented of a female shark not having had contact with a male shark in three years, but has given birth to a baby shark without any parental DNA present; resulting in the newborn almost being an exact replica of his mother.

• In some cultures sharks are worshipped as gods. At some islands like Hawaii where there is a vast amount of sharks, it is no surprise that they model a shark as a god. The story has it that some of these models can transform from human to shark. Some stories even tell of the sharks first being of human nature. One particular story tells the fable that the shark in human form warned beach-goers about the sharks in the water. But the people on the beach ignored the human-shark, and was later eaten up by the same shark that originally warned them about the sharks.
• Sharks are said to have been living on earth for 400 million years. When a shark dies its cartilage dissolves and its teeth drop to the bottom of the ocean where it is covered with sandy sediment which prevents oxygen and destructive bacteria from reaching the tooth and that is why when you find a shark tooth fossil it is grey, black or brown and not white of colour.

Now whether you are fascinated by the shark specie, fear them or are just intrigued with them; above facts can certainly make us admire this incredible creature.

For the experience of a lifetime, take a trip down in the ocean and go shark cage diving to have an in-depth and close-up investigation of these incredible species. Shark Cage Diving