Kayaking 05-05

I just wanted to inform people that it is legal to keep a legal sized shark from a kayak if you put in from a public beach. We put our kayaks in at the beach east of the pier and went a long ways out. We were fishing for kings but had a nice size shark hook up. It was a legal sized shark and we decided to boat it. My disappointment came when people from the pier called and tried to get us in trouble. After some time dealing with the park ranger, the truth came out and we were exonerated. He admitted that we were legal and had done nothing wrong. We were within the law. I was disappointed that my fellow pier fisherman were trying to get us in trouble without knowing the law. I have always followed the law and pride myself in doing the right thing. I do want to thank the people who stood up for us and verified that we caught the shark legally to the park ranger. I also want to thank the park ranger Bill for his professionalism.

Cool Story. I still say be careful tempting fate! That might be some bad juju killing a shark in a kayak.

Who thought it was illegal? I dont see how it would be illegal.

Yeah man i hate when people put there nose where it don't belong :guns:

I have asked several marine police about it, and they said it is A ok to kill a shark from a yak and then bring it to the beach..

hate to hear about you having to deal with that

Some people from the pier called the park ranger. I didn't understand why it would bother anyone in the first place. My son caught the thing probably over a mile or so out. So we weren't catching fish away from people on the pier. Other than the trouble at the beach, we had a blast. My son fought it for about an hour. It then took us about 30 minutes to finally boat it. It was his biggest fish ever, so he was really excited.

Yeah Peaches, after the park ranger spoke with the marine police on the phone, everything seemed to settle down. Especially once they realized that it was caught out of a kayak.

I saw a pic of it on Facebook Sat :)

Sounds like y’all had a ball out there.
Sometime people are just so jealous of what others are doing; they have to ruin it. Especially if others are enjoying it!
It’s a shame that some folks want to spoil things for others when they are the center of attention or the one having all the fun.

Idiots!

Is there a specific distance from shore to be legAl? Other wise I am about to buy a yak....;-)

The law states that you can't fish for sharks where a line has been originally cast from the state pier or a state beach. We have really enjoyed the kayak fishing. We have been targeting kings but have been catching other things also. It is a blast. It is really fun fighting them out of a kayak. It's been really neat getting to see the fish out there and we have seen a lot of sea turtles also. We had one swim within about 3 feet of one of our yaks to investigate it. Pretty neat.

^^^ Always keep a rod with a Cobia jig handy. I take one rod for that single purpose. Cobia love kayaks. I have looked under my kayak several times and seen Cobia just hanging out under me. I have hooked one that had to have been 60+ pounds, just dropping straight down a couple of feet., but had a knot malfunction.

Thanks for the advice Bubba. I would love to catch a cobia. It is one of the few saltwater fish I haven't caught before. Thanks for the kind words guy. I was a little disheartened by my fellow pier fisherman trying to rat me out but I'm starting to see that it must have been some people with an issue and were trying to take it out on someone. It wouldn't have been so bad but it would have been around a $500 fine plus court costs. So thanks again.