Maine Shark Fishing: Blues, Makos, Threshers
Maine shark fishing is extremely popular, and with good reason. You almost always catch sharks and they tend to run big in Maine.
Maine shark fishing involves chumming, typically with ground & frozen like herring or pogies. You stop the boat, setup a chum slick, and wait for the sharks to show up. If the current isn't too fast, it's common to drift, although sometimes shark fishermen anchor to avoid drifting too fast. You might drop a line to the bottom and catch some ground fish while waiting as well, and it's common to catch haddock, cod, and much more.
Popular spots include Jeffries Ledge, Tantas Ledge, Platts Bank and The Rose Garden, all clearly marked on nautical charts.
Eventually the sharks show up, and grab the baits which are suspended at different depths via balloons. If you hear a balloon pop or see a balloon go under it's usually shark. Sometimes the sharks will be visible in the chum slick, other times you don't see them until you land them.
"If the sharks are visible in the slick you can definitely catch them on a fly," say the good
captain. About a third of his shark charter clients bring fly gear along and many are
successful. One fly I've had a lot of success with personally, although I
haven't tried it in Maine yet, is made by taking almost any big fly, snipping
the tail off, and then wrapping a pipe cleaner around the body. It's big and
ugly, but when you dead drift it in a chum slick up to a shark, they often
mistake it for a piece of chum and inhale it much like a trout taking a nymph.
Thanks to captain Ken Harris of Key West for teaching me this technique!
The season for sharks in Maine is from late July to October. The main species is the blue shark and they run big in Maine. For example, it's common to catch ten foot females in July and August that weigh between 300 and 400 pounds! Other species include mako sharks, with 250 pounders common, and thresher sharks, with 200-300 pounders common.
Blue sharks are edible, although I wouldn't recommend them. If super fresh they taste OK, but the flesh always feels like it's slightly uncooked – kind of mushy. If not super- ultra-fresh, plan on spitting your first and only bite out – at least that's my experience. Makos of course are great to eat, and threshers reportedly delicious also.
Do keep in mind that sharks are particularly susceptible to fishing pressure, as they are long-lived, slow to mature, and have few offspring. Most sharks fishing is understandably catch and release.
There are other species around as well. I'll never forget having a basking shark come up below Captain John's boat once – it was BIGGER than the boat. Yes, I'm serious. And we had watched the movie "Jaws" the night before too! Don't plan of catching a basking sharks – they are a passive filter feeders, although very curious creatures that will come right up to a boat.
Maine is a great place to go shark fishing. Although there is a wider variety of sharks down south, you almost always catch sharks and they are large in Maine.
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