66° 0 0

Shark Fishing

Shark Fishing

Last Updated: July 9, 2019 by Captain Shane Cantrell | Fishing


Another great and exhilarating aspect of summer fishing in Galveston is catching sharks!!! Big, hard fighting fish that can often grow to be over 6 feet in length can be caught in the nearshore waters or along the beachfront. Galveston is home to over 15 different species of shark, so it’s very important to understand how to identify them if you plan to keep one to eat. Here’s a great resource for identifying sharks: NOAA Shark Identification Guide. The most distinguishing feature to look for is a ridge between the first and second dorsal fins (or top of the shark). It’s basically a fine line that runs between the fins of the shark and is fairly easy to spot… if you know to look for it.

Man on Boat Reeling In Shark

These fish can be caught with live bait or dead bait, fishing on the bottom or drifting, with a wire leader (because they have teeth). Typically circle hooks are most effective to avoid them swallowing the hook. Great places to catch them are at the end of the Galveston Jetties protecting the ship channel, around nearshore oil and gas platforms, or behind shrimp boats offshore.

Shrimp Boat and Fishing Boat

Many shark species are protected from harvesting because they grow slowly, mature later in their life, and don’t reproduce at a high rate. But other species, have very robust populations and are perfectly fine to harvest. Within the Texas Parks and Wildlife regulations and bag limits, of course.

The most important rule of thumb for shark fishing, especially if you plan to keep one…. “If you don’t know, let it go!”


SPONSORED CONTENT

Luxury Vacation Rentals Available

Beachtown Vacation Rentals
Luxury vacation rental properties in the Beachtown community, located on the eastern tip of Galveston Island. Visit Website

Samuel B Jewelry

Island Silver
The Gulf Coast’s Premier Sterling Silver Jewelry Store with thousand of .925 Sterling items in stock. Visit Website

Captain Shane Cantrell

Captain Shane Cantrell is the owner/operator of Galveston Sea Ventures, a charter and commercial fishing business in Galveston. His business provides a variety of fishing experiences in Galveston for anglers of all skill and experience levels. He is also a founding member of the Galveston Professional Boatmen’s Association, dedicated to collectively ensuring fishery sustainability while enhancing the professional fishing heritage of Galveston.

2020-01-21T10:54:05-06:00

This Is A Custom Widget

This Sliding Bar can be switched on or off in theme options, and can take any widget you throw at it or even fill it with your custom HTML Code. Its perfect for grabbing the attention of your viewers. Choose between 1, 2, 3 or 4 columns, set the background color, widget divider color, activate transparency, a top border or fully disable it on desktop and mobile.

This Is A Custom Widget

This Sliding Bar can be switched on or off in theme options, and can take any widget you throw at it or even fill it with your custom HTML Code. Its perfect for grabbing the attention of your viewers. Choose between 1, 2, 3 or 4 columns, set the background color, widget divider color, activate transparency, a top border or fully disable it on desktop and mobile.