Lone Star Trail
Texas themed hunting and fishing interviews featuring experts and real tales from the field.
Lone Star Trail
Texas Shark Hunting
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As we wrap up shark week 2026, the Trail leads to the Texas Gulf where Dwade Hickey and M6 Outfitters have been catching sharks for 25 years. He details some of the most memorable shark encounters and invites you to join him.
Thanks for stopping by and happy hunting.
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Welcome to Lone Star Trail, a new outdoor show aimed at bringing you hunting and fishing updates and compelling stories from around Texas and right here at home. Get ready to join us down the trail. Now, here's your host, Nathan Smith.
SPEAKER_04Hello, friends, and welcome to another edition of the Lone Star Trail. I'm your host, Nathan Smith, and happy Shark Week. Yeah, that's right. It's Shark Week all across the nation. And in honor of Shark Week, Lone Star Trail goes to the Gulf Coast where we hook up with M6 Outfitters. Dwayne Hickey and Gunnerman joined the show today to talk about shark fishing and some of the most memorable sharks that they've caught and what you can expect when you book a guided hunt with M6 Outfitters down on the coast, close to Port Arancis and North Padre Island. Support some more coffee, stay tuned. We'll have more right after the break. Whether you're looking to buy your next hunting property or have acreage to sell, you need Brian Clark and Ranch Pro Real Estate in your corner. Use the latest in technology to make listings easy for sellers to maximize value. In the market to buy that perfect ranch or hunting getaway, call Ranch Pro Real Estate at 325-642-3630. That's Ranch Pro Real Estate at RanchProReal Estate.com. The land is their life. Let's face it, whether you farm or ranch or raise wildlife, you've encountered problems with predators, no doubt. My friends at Texas Farm and Ranch Wildlife Solutions have the answer to your predator nuisance farmant problems. They specialize in taking care of those pesky raccoons, coyotes, bobcats, beavers, whatever wildlife issues you're having, Texas Farm and Ranch Wildlife Solutions is your answer. Call my friend Philip Wood at 713-208-3517. That's 713-208-3517. You can find him online at TFRWS.com. He's a professional trapper. He knows what he's doing. He has the right resources and the right techniques to get the job done. If you don't believe him, look at his website and see all the happy customers he's racked up over the years. Phillip Woods with Texas Farm and Ranch Wildlife Solutions. Give him a call.
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SPEAKER_04You're listening to the Lone Star Trail. We're glad you're here. Now let's get back to the show. Welcome back to the show here on the Lone Star Trail. It's Shark Week, as you may or may not know, and uh in honor of Shark Week, we've got some shark fishing pros on the show today. Uh we got Gunner Mann back with us from M6 Outfitters. Gunner, thanks for being here.
SPEAKER_03Hey, thanks for having me. I'm excited.
SPEAKER_04We also have Dwayne Hickey uh down there on the coast. He's a Shark Pro, Shark Guide with uh M6 Outfitters. Dwayne, uh great to have you on the show. Thanks for being here.
SPEAKER_05I appreciate it. Thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_04Well, I told you guys before we started uh off air, I said I'm gonna ask some dumb questions. So uh no time like the present to start asking some dumb questions. So uh Gunnar, when we talked last, it was uh I think it was the end of last year, maybe the first of this year we talked, and uh we hunting season was about to wrap up or was kind of in the latter stages, and we talked about uh shark hunting, shark fishing, and that means something new for M6. Uh, before we get into the shark uh fishing component of what you guys do, I'd I'd love to kind of get a recap on both of your backgrounds and just how you guys got into this. I think it's always interesting to figure out just you know how people got going uh and doing what they do. So um Dwayne, you're you're uh a first-time guest on the show. So I want to start with you. Tell us a little bit about your background, where you grew up, and and uh not many people can say they're a shark fishing guide. So that's kind of like one of those cool icebreakers uh you can start off with wherever you go. How did you get into that?
SPEAKER_05Well, I grew up in South Texas, and uh I'd say it was back in 1996. I had a buddy of mine, and he uh he he'd go down to Fort A Corpus Christi all the time and uh fish and he'd go down there and see these guys catching these big sharks and whatnot, and he he he got to talk to me about it, and he's like we need to buy some big rod reels and go down there and see what we can do. So I said, Okay. So I did. And like I said, this this started back in 95-96. I want to say 96 is when I first started shark fishing, and back then it was totally different than it is now. Um back then we used what the pen senator reels, um, which they still make them. Right. But uh they came out with these newer models of reels that are are more high speed and they got high speed gears, low speed gears, and whatnot. But the pen senators back then were were uh pretty slow. Like when you're cranking in a fish, it takes a while to get them in, even when you're just pulling in your your your weights, you know, from being yakked out and dropped. Um but so basically I grew up in South Texas and started shark fishing in '96. Uh I grew up just South San Antonio. I would drive to Corpus probably uh once a month during the summertime. And uh I don't know, I I just kind of fell in love with it. You know, I started catching sharks uh back when I was in my early twenties and they just got bigger and bigger and bigger and then started catching these these grander sharks and I'm like, man, this is really fun, you know, and and got a family and and had a couple boys and I got them into it and uh they really love the sport as well and and now they're fishing with me and um uh they're just loving it. I mean it's it's it's like an addiction, I guess you could say, you know. I I identify with that, yeah. You know, it it's you know, some people like basic. I understand that. You know, a lot of people like surf fishing for trout and redfish. That's fun. Don't get me wrong, I do it too. But when you get your line out there 800 yards from the beach, and you drop a bait that weighs 10 to 15 pounds, and the fish picks it up, and he runs, and you fight this fish for I don't know, anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, hour and a half, and you finally see that fish, it's just something you'll never forget. It's an adrenaline pump like you don't believe. And it's something that I grew up doing, and I've caught many, many big sharks and a lot of small sharks. But uh the big ones are what really get your adrenaline pumping, and um uh it's something that I really enjoyed throughout my life, and uh I like taking you know my my family out, my friends, and even in clients, you know, when we when I take clients out just to see them get that same rush that I get. Um compare it to hunting, you know. When I'm sitting in a deer stand with my clients and and they shoot an animal, I get the same fling they get. And it's the same thing when they reel in a a shark from the beach and they never caught a shark before. Their first time catching a fish like that of that magnitude. If if it's over, you know, seven or eight feet, it's just something you they never forget. Even the sharks that are, you know, three foot, three foot, six, seven foot, you know, it's something else. I mean, uh I love seeing a smile on their faces, especially the kids, right? Uh they just never forget that moment and experience on the beach and teaching them how to fish and teaching them how to how to rig their these baits and showing them what we do and and whatnot. But uh yeah, it's it's just something that that I've enjoyed doing and uh I've been doing it and uh I just I don't know. It's an adrenaline rush and I'll keep doing it till I can't.
SPEAKER_04Well, that sounds like every hunter I've ever talked to. I'm gonna keep doing it till I can't anymore.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_04Or like the or like the the farmer who won the lottery and he's gonna farm until it's all gone, kind of thing. Same kind of thing.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Gunner, uh listeners of the show have heard your story, but I'd I'd love for you to kind of recap. Um M6 Outfitters, uh, you've been guiding now for uh a long time. Uh it's something you have uh grown up doing. Uh you talked about that. And um talk a little bit about your background, and then I want to know kind of how you guys uh got together and and uh are working together now.
SPEAKER_03Okay, it's kind of a funny story how me and Dwayne met and how we got in how I got into the shark fishing with him. But I grew up hunting uh with my dad, my granddad, my brother. Uh I mean it seemed like especially during deer season, every weekend we were going out to the lease. Uh and then in high school, when I or when I was in high school, my parents uh moved us out to the deer lease. So when we moved from moved from the city to the deer lease, things changed a little bit. But uh I I just grew up hunting and then uh it was probably I think it was eight or nine years ago I started guiding uh whitetail hunts and doing some exotics. Uh and I bet I think it was probably six years ago I started working on a ranch where Dway was guiding, and that's when I ran into Dwade. He was been telling me about all this shark fishing stuff, and I it was new to me. I I've never I didn't even know that was a real deal. So after uh after after him showing me all these pictures, I was like, yeah, yeah, right. He's not catching sharks like that. But uh so we started guiding we were guiding whitetail together, and then uh I guess somewhere, I don't, I don't really know. I guess two or three years ago. Yeah, I say about probably three years ago. Probably three years ago. I ran into Dwayne, or not ran into Dwayne, but we were hunting one day and he said, Y'all need to come out. So we all all the guys we went out one weekend, spent the weekend on the beach with them, and actually I still give Dwayne a hard time. I didn't we didn't catch anything. Uh I I got I got a I got a real big stingray, and then I I just remember that stingray, and I thought, this is a giant shark. Yeah. And Dwayne knew as soon as it picked up, he's like, that's not a shark, that's probably a stingray, just by the way the the reel was moving. So I guess that next summer we went back down there. Pretty much the same guys, group of guys. We went down there and fished, and you know, after a while he was like, we can make this like a a real deal. Uh we we we can do this. And I was like, Yeah, yeah, we can. So we pretty much just jumped all in.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, that that second time we went down our gunner, uh, we did hook onto a big fish. Bobby fought it for what 30 minutes?
SPEAKER_03At least 30 minutes. It seemed like well, actually, it seemed like it was only like five minutes, but when we we ended up losing that fish right before we got him in. Oh man. And uh pulled the hook. I I don't I don't know. DeWade that was I think he was seen as either a tiger or uh a bull shark, and I guess that's a question for DeWade, but those fight differently uh per for their size, and Dwayne Dwayne's the man for those questions.
SPEAKER_04Now, Dwayne was not the guy you were telling me about that uh that couldn't shoot, right?
SPEAKER_03That wouldn't Dwayne No, no, that wasn't Dwayne. Okay, okay, but I just want to make sure Dwayne's a pretty good shot. Okay, all right, all right. I'm just kidding, Dwayne. Dwayne, um Dwayne's been Dwayne's been nil guy hunting this pretty much his whole entire life.
SPEAKER_04And oh, you're shooting thousand-yard shots, easy then.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, he's laying he's walking through the brush laying prone. I'm not gonna compare him to Charles Beatty, but uh if I had I mean if if I had known him back in the day.
SPEAKER_04Well, we're not shooting the shark with a 30 out six at uh 500 yards. We're probably using something different. And Dwayne, I I want to I want to talk a little bit. You you talked about growing up. How old were you when you caught your first shark? Were you already grown up or were you a kid?
SPEAKER_05Or no, I was already grown up. I was probably let me think real quick, um, probably around 24. Okay, gotcha. 24 when I first got my big shark. Now I've caught several sharks before I started targeting them, right? So I'd I'd come down to Port A and get on these headboats and I'd go offshore to catch kingfish and pup sharks and stuff like that, but nothing over four feet until I got into shark fishing on my own, then I started catching these bigger sharks, right? But probably not until I was 24, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Okay. When we come back for the break, I want to talk about the biggest shark you've ever caught. Uh so stay tuned here on the Lone Star Trail. We're talking about shark fishing down on the coast of Texas here on Shark Week. So stay tuned. We'll be right back after this.
SPEAKER_02Stay tuned right here. Lone Star Trail will return after these messages.
SPEAKER_04If you follow the podcast or if you're new, either way, we talk a lot about trapping. You're gonna find that out. Uh, we've got our own predator issues out here in Brown County we try to mitigate, but I want to talk a little bit about Texas Farm Ranch Wildlife Solutions. My good friend Philip Woods out in East Texas. Uh, he's an expert when it comes to managing predation on Texas farms and ranches. If you've got trouble with coyoges, with bobcats, with uh uh beaver, if you've got nuisance predators impacting your bottom line, you need to call my friend Philip Woods. 713-208-3517 is his number. That's 713-208-3517. You can email him at woodscattlecompany at gmail.com. Uh Philip Woods out there in East Texas, he does a great job, but he's statewide. If you got problems in South Texas or the panhandle, uh professional trapping services, Texas Farm and Ranch Wildlife Solutions, that's who you need to call. Whether you're looking to buy your next hunting property or have acreage to sell, you need Brian Clark and Ranch Pro Real Estate in your corner. Use the latest in technology to make listings easy for sellers to maximize value. In the market to buy that perfect ranch or hunting getaway, call Ranch Pro Real Estate at 325-642-3630. That's Ranch Pro Real Estate at RanchPro RealEstate.com. The land is their life. You're listening to the Lone Star Trail. We're glad you're here. Now let's get back to the show. We're back here on the Lone Star Trail talking about shark fishing. It's chart week. Dwayne uh and Gunner with M6 Outfitters. Dwayne, thanks for being here. Gunner, same to you. Thank you guys for taking time to be here. We were talking right before the break, uh, Dwayne. Tell me the biggest shark that you've ever caught.
SPEAKER_05The biggest shark that I've caught was a 12-foot hammerhead, greater hammerhead.
SPEAKER_04So what was the fight like with that thing? Well, it wait, wait, wait. Before we talk about that, let's just to kind of give everybody a picture. This isn't like uh this isn't like a huge boat scenario either. So tell us like the the tackle, the rig, the describe the the kind of the the tools that you that use to bring this thing in first.
SPEAKER_05Okay, well, uh so this was uh a few years ago, and I was still using my senator, pin senators, and I have 12 what they call 12 aughts, 14 aughts, and 16 aughts. But uh the 12 others were the reels that I really like to use. And those were the ones I was telling you about earlier were you know they're real low gear. So it takes a while. When a fish picks them, picks it up, it it just takes a while to the reel the fish in. I fought this fish. When a hammerhead picks up your bait, the initial run is probably gonna last about five to six minutes before you even stop this fish. So once he picks up the bait and he runs with it, you're just watching that pull a line unfold off your reel.
SPEAKER_04So you're not even trying to stop him at this point.
SPEAKER_05No, you just let him run. Because what you're doing is you want that fish to pick up that bait and swallow that bait because you're using uh circle hook. Okay. And you want that fish to swallow that bait. Right? So when the hook, when he sucks that bait off the hook, he wants that hook to come like towards his mouth back out of his mouth and hook him in the side of his mouth. So you gotta make sure that they eat it and they swallow it, and then the hook pops out, and then then it's supposed to hook them in the side of their mouth. So once you get him hooked, then you you tighten the drag and you try to stop and turn this fish. Well, I did. And the fish stopped, and I finally got him turned, and I'm starting to gain on him, and I'm getting him in, and then he decided to run again. So he's splitting around and he's taking line out, and on these reels, on these 12 dots, I have braid on the bottom and mono on top. And these reels, I was getting probably about a thousand yards of line on these reels, and uh he'd take me down to probably a quarter of a full, and then I'd stop him, and I'd drag him back in you know, a couple hundred yards, and then he'd make another run, and then I'd bring him back in a couple hundred yards. It was a process on this particular rod reel. The reel was a 12-ounce senator, the rod was an 80-class rod, seven and a half foot, and it took me an hour and a half to get this shark to where I could handle it. And uh we finally got him in, and this is all happening happening probably around midnight. Okay. So we're using our headlamp to leader this fish and put a tail rope on it. And I didn't really know what it was at the time. Kind of figured it was a hammer, but until I saw his dorsal and his tail, I was like, man, this is a big fish. Finally got him up, got him over that first sandbar. Just remember, because we're fishing off the beach, right? And uh uh my buddy jumps uh down there and he grabs the the leader and starts, and I jump down there and I put a rope around his tail and we drag him up, keep him in the water, uh because we don't want to kill the fish. All these fish that I catch is all uh catch and release. We we we tag them and we release them. So uh we got the fish up, took a bunch of pictures, got the measurement, got the hook out, and uh took him back out across the first bar into the deeper water and swam with him for about 30 minutes and uh pushed him off into the surf and watched him swim away.
SPEAKER_04Wow. So a 12 foot hammerhead, what is it what does that thing weigh, roughly, you think?
SPEAKER_05Uh guesstimated about five to six hundred pounds.
SPEAKER_04Okay. Now I can I can follow you all the way up until the part where you said, and then we swam with him for 30 minutes.
SPEAKER_03I knew that was.
SPEAKER_04Okay, what's up with that? Tell me let me let me tell you, I've been to four day three or four times. I get out to about knee deep, and then I'm like, yeah, that's about good. That's about good for them.
SPEAKER_05So yeah, well, on these bigger sharks, uh, because mainly the hammerheads, right? Because they got such a small mouth, and they usually fight. So when you get them in, they're really tired, right? Okay. They're on their pretty much their last leg. So basically what you have to do is you gotta you gotta swim with them and face them into the current and kind of push them and walk with them back and forth. Move that head left to right, side to side, get them where they're breathing oxygen again. Because, like I said, because they're mouth being so small, right? They just they they die and they'll die quick. I mean, there's a lot of been a lot of uh hammers caught uh that I've seen that have died because of that reason. Um, but you have to walk them. When when I say walk them, you you're holding the fish by the tech fin and and kind of trying to move it to the left, to the right, to the left, to the right as you're pushing it, right? You're kind of swimming with it, trying to get it to catch his breath and and get that last breath and then push him. And then once you push him, usually he'll swim off. And I ain't talking about just hammerheads, I'm talking about any any big shark, the bulls, the the big tigers. Uh everything needs to be walked out, right? Um who gets is it is that part of the package?
SPEAKER_04You get to walk the shark out you catch.
SPEAKER_05Well, uh the clients don't get to do that. Okay. But but I'll I'll do that. Okay, uh my boys, if they're with me, they'll they'll help me do that. Uh yeah, it's it's all a safety thing.
SPEAKER_04Oh, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03The insurance would be about unaffordable if if you're letting people need to talk about all that.
SPEAKER_04So, okay, all right. So, all right, okay, I'm I'm following you now. Uh Dwayne, my next question is uh have you ever hunted for hogs with just a knife? Because it sounds like uh that might just be a little safer than swimming a shark at 500 yards.
SPEAKER_05I have to kill a couple hogs with just a knife.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_05Hogs and a knife.
SPEAKER_04Everybody, yeah, everybody ought to do that once.
SPEAKER_05My friend, yeah, everybody should. It's really fun.
SPEAKER_04My friend David says it's like measles. You ought to have it at least once in your life.
SPEAKER_05That's right.
SPEAKER_04No, I'll I'll keep it aside. That sounds that sounds like a lot of fun, actually, and a lot of fun to watch. And on top of that, in this scenario with this hammerhead, you guys are doing this uh in the dark.
SPEAKER_05In the dark at night, 12 o'clock, midnight.
SPEAKER_04And you're probably worn out too after an hour and a half of fight fighting the shark.
SPEAKER_03But with with a headlamp and no phone service at that.
SPEAKER_05Everybody is safe and you know, because you're you're pretty far away from civilization.
SPEAKER_04Right. Right. Okay, so that kind of leads to a I guess a natural question about you've been doing this a long time, a lot of years, a lot of sharks. Um this may not and that one may be the most memorable, but what is what is the most memorable uh shark or experience, whether it was been with just you and your family or maybe with a client, is there a there a specific experience that comes to mind as maybe most most memorable?
SPEAKER_05There is, and uh it happened um actually back in 2016. And uh my family was there, some friends were there, and I hooked into a fish, and it was in March, the end of March. That time of year is when the jack travel, jackfish start coming in chasing the mullet, because we have what we call the mullet run. When the when the jacks come in, the Mako sharks follow the jack and they come in close to the beach. Well, I have several lines out, and one of my rods went off and I hooked this fish and it started jumping, and my buddy's like, dude, that's a Mako. And I was so excited, and I fought this fish for an hour, and I get her up, and my buddy tail ropes it and drags her in, and we put a tape measure to her, and she was 10 foot six with part of her tail bit off. Well, my buddy he had some satellite tags, so we ended up tagging his makeup in the dorsal fin with a satellite tag, which is uh a metal tag, we gotta put uh stainless steel bolts and stuff in her in her fin, and we tagged her and released her. And uh because in Port Aranzas they have heart research. If you're watching the Shark Week on Discovery, they talk about Shark Week. Uh Kesley, she was on there actually just last night, and uh she's a scientist for them, and uh she's been tracking Mako's for a long time. And after I tagged this Mako and released it, I was able to watch it as it swam throughout the Gulf. So we kept tracking for like a month and a half. And I was talking to her and and what made it so special for me being that it was a Mako that would have been pushing eleven foot had the tail not been bit off, but I was the first one in Texas to ever land a Mako that was satellite tagged and released off the Gulf Beach in Texas. Wow, that's awesome. Yeah, and it it was really something that you know, out of all the sharks I've caught, and I've caught a lot of sharks. That was probably my most memorable one because it was a Mako and I was able to tag it, and uh Heart Research could get some uh could watch it and see where it went. But you know, like I said, we watched it for like a month and a half, two months, and they ended up naming her Lazarus. Lazarus was her name. And uh but after a few months, she disappeared. Don't know what happened, but after talking uh to Kesley about it, she thinks the battery probably went dead on that transmitter. Because it only transmits when they surface, uh right. So when her dorsal comes up out of the water and it sends a signal to a satellite and it bounces back and they get a reading, they can figure out they can track her and see where she's going. Uh, but they think that battery probably went dead.
SPEAKER_04Do you remember how many miles um she had traveled distance honestly?
SPEAKER_05I I don't, but I know she went down into Mexico. Right? So from corpus to Mexico, I know that's like what 120, 140 miles. Yeah, yeah. And then hung out down there and she came back and then she went back and then disappeared.
SPEAKER_04So aren't aren't Mako sharks pretty fast?
SPEAKER_05They are fast, they're they're they're the fastest swimming sharks in the ocean around here. Okay, all right. And that that fight took me, I want to say an hour to get her in. Wow. Uh yeah. So that was my most memorable catch. It was at Mako.
SPEAKER_04Whether you're guiding for whitetail or you're fishing for sharks, and you're you're dealing with people who may have never done this before, there's gotta be some probably some interesting experiences with some clients. Is any of those kind of come to mind?
SPEAKER_05Not really fishing. I mean, besides the excitement, you know, that uh some of these clients get when they catch your first sharks. I mean, it's like I said in the beginning, it it's it's nothing that really stands out, you know, as far as shark fishing. Um, they're just I don't know.
SPEAKER_03To me, it's one of those like uh hurry up and hurry up and wait type deals. You're sitting there and just sit sitting on the chair talking and next thing you know, you just you you hear it, you hear it take off. It's like, oh, no time. Yeah between like the adrenaline, there for for me at least, the adrenaline, you don't really there's not really any time for like craziness besides like what's going on right in front of you.
SPEAKER_04There's a friend of mine out in East Texas who's a trapper, Philip Woods, who's on the show a couple times, and and uh he's trapped all of his life, you know, and we we talk about no matter how long you've done this, you see something in a trap, you set there's that adrenaline pump. It's kind of a dumb question because I don't know the answer, but you still get that when you have a shark hit a line, right?
SPEAKER_05Oh, I do. I do every single time. I don't care if the shark is three foot or twelve foot, I get the same rush.
SPEAKER_04I want to talk a little bit about, and I told you guys before I'm pretty ignorant about sharks, but um talk a little bit about behavior. You guys mentioned tiger sharks, bull sharks, we talked about Mako sharks, uh hammerheads, and you've been doing this long enough that you you can kind of get an idea of what's on the line before you even see it. What are what are some of the main differences in in those those different species? Are they um in terms of aggression or in terms of uh strength, size? Tell me some some of the main differences between those sharks.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, the the difference is mainly like like the hammerheads. Um the hammerheads and the maples, the initial when they pick up that bait, their initial run is fast and steady. I mean no slowing down whatsoever. That line is coming off that spool as fast as it can. Okay. When a tiger shark or a bull shark picks up that bait, it's a slow, sluggish, steady run. Line is coming off the spool at a steady pace, but a lot slower, right? So you can tell an initial run what kind of shark is gonna be. Whether it's a hammer, tiger, or even uh black tips they're or smaller sharks than black chips, you know, they get up to uh about seven foot. That's about the biggest black chip you're gonna get. You can catch spinners, and I think they get up to uh seven and a half feet spinners just like a uh a black chip, but they're same family, whatnot. But uh they run pretty fast by their size, but nothing, nothing like a a Mako or a hammerhead shark. So yeah, we we can usually tell the initial pickup what the shark is before we even see it.
SPEAKER_04If you're just joining the show, we're talking about shark fishing on the Texas coast. And uh we'll have to take a quick break, but when we come back, we're gonna talk about some tools to trade, some methods and strategies when it comes to catching sharks. Stay with us.
SPEAKER_01When you need them, your local volunteer fire department routinely answers the call. Whether it be a fire, a traffic accident, or a cat stuck in a tree, there is always someone there for you. However, because of the clients of membership, departments are becoming understaffed and struggled. Here's how you can help your neighbors and no matter what skills you make the best, it's gonna make a difference. Your local volunteer fire department desperately needs your help. Help a fundraiser. Your community, you'll have to fight fire to be a volunteer. Will you make that difference? Will you answer the call? Brought to you by the National Volunteer Firefighter Recruitment Center, a program service of the Volunteer Firefighter Alliance. For more information on how you can help and make a difference, visit www.ncfrc.org. That's www.ncfrc.org.
SPEAKER_04Welcome back to the show. We've got Gunnar Man. Gunner, thanks for being here, M6 Outfitters.
SPEAKER_03Hi, thanks for having me. I'm excited.
SPEAKER_04And Dwayne Dwayne, thanks for being here. You're the Shark Pro, Shark Expert. Thanks for taking time today.
SPEAKER_05Hey, thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_04So we've been talking in the first uh half of the show uh really about um some experiences you got to the shark fishing world, and uh now you and and and gunner have uh hooked up and have made this another part of the M6 outfitter offering in terms of the guides guided uh trips and so um looking at some of the pictures. Now you guys know I'm Gunnar I'm a I'm a big uh time pressure hunter. Um I'm not I'm not a good one, but I I enjoyed it. And we've uh I have built a rack uh recently uh last winter we built a rack and we're you know improving it. I was looking at the truck that has the platform on it from the photos on my website, and it looks it reminded me uh about of our rack that we built. Um, and you guys have built built this same sort of rack to uh find and fish for sharks. So tell me about the rig that you guys have that goes in the back of the truck.
SPEAKER_05Okay, so that platform, which is pretty popular, it's all built out of aluminum. Obviously, being down there on the coast, you don't want it to rush. So uh we built it out of aluminum. Uh my my a real good friend of mine actually built that rack for me. And uh it's been on a couple of different trucks already. But uh I got it I got it high like that built up on top of the truck because down here in Southern Texas, especially down here in the corpus area, because of the way the coastline is shaped. If you look at a map, you'll see it has that curve in it. The the current, the way the currents are. We get a lot of weed certain years. It's called sorghasm, and this weed is coming across the gulf from the sorghasm sea. When the surf fills up with weed, it's nearly impossible to fish. Whether you're fishing for sharks or redfish or trout or whatever, you just really can't. So we we made these towers to get that line up really high. So when we take our baits out, which I use a kayak, and we kayak our baits, the line is up above the sandbars, which is where that weed's gonna be, and that line stays out of the water until it reaches about the second, the third gut. Okay. So therefore we can keep our lines out and not worry about that weed getting on our lines and either breaking us off or pulling our our weight and our bait back into the shore. Because if you're fishing all night and you do fall asleep, you'll wake up in the morning and you might have dropped that bait 800 yards out. Well, now your bait is 800 yards down the beach because it got wiped out you know from the weed and whatnot. So that's basically why we have those towers on the truck, because of the the weed situation down here in South Texas along the the Gulf Coast of Corpus Christi.
SPEAKER_04Got it, that makes a lot of sense. Um talking about the bait, what typically are you guys using? If you can share that, I don't know if it's a secret or not.
SPEAKER_05No, there's really no secret. So so basically, I mean, if I'm casting baits, right, and sometimes I'll I'll do that. If the water's too too rough and I can't get my kayak out past that first or second bar, I'll do what we call casted baits, and and I'll catch uh whatever I catch in the surf, which is usually whiting, even hard heads, you know. Hard heads are good bait for sharks. Um biting is really good bait. Uh you can also eat them. So for casting baits, that's probably my two favorite things to use. Skip jack. If you can find some skip jacks, lady fish, that's also good bait for casting casted baits. Okay. Now, as far as yaking our baits out, which when we yak, we'll take them anywhere from 200 up to 800 yards out, and sometimes further, depending on the conditions. The conditions are really nice, we can get out there 900 to a thousand yards. It depends. On the wind, right? The weed situation, how big the surf is, you know, if it's over four foot, it's really hard to kayak a bait in conditions like that because you tend to get flipped over, right? And uh in the kayak, then you gotta get back in, and it's just it's just a hassle.
SPEAKER_04And you've got bait all around you, and you're upside down in the water, is all I can think about.
SPEAKER_05You are absolutely correct, you know. That's all I think about too.
SPEAKER_04I'm like, no, we're getting out of here.
SPEAKER_05It's not fun. I've been there and done it many, many times.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Um, but as back to your question, as far as the baits we use when we're yakking for these bigger sharks, uh, we like to use stingrays. You can use southerns, you can use cow nose stingrays, uh those work really well. Jack Cravel Jackfish works really good. Them three are probably my favorite baits to use. The southerns, the cownos, and the jackfish. Bonito work really good too. I've caught several tigers on Bonita, but the problem with that, they're really soft fish and they get what they call crabbed out pretty quick, right? So uh probably the jackfish and the stingrays are are the baits to use and whatnot. But you know, if you're fishing in the surf and and you end up catching a pretty good sized lady fish, put her on and yak her out. It's almost guaranteed a fish. Even pompanyl. You know, pompinel are real big to the catch in the surf certain times of year. Um, they're really good baits as well. So basically, I guess what I'm getting at is anything that you catch in the surf, the shark's gonna eat because that's what they're feeding on. Right. Match the hatch, right? Like anywhere you go. Uh just match the hatch. But for setting baits out overnight, the bigger baits, you know, anywhere from uh eight to fifteen pounds is what we use. You know, that way we have a better chance of it getting picked up by a bigger shark because the little smaller fish and the crabs are all picking at it, picking at it, picking at it. So you want it to pass it. Right. Uh when we do these trips, our baits might be soaking, you know, anywhere from 30 minutes, and I've caught sharks 24 hours later on a stingray that's been in the water for 24 hours. So you just never know. That's that's one of them deals of shark fishing, right? Um it could be within just dropping the bait. You know, I've I've had buddies of mine that literally dropped the bait out of their kayak and the shark picked it up out of their hand.
SPEAKER_04Oh man.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So you know No thanks.
SPEAKER_05It's one of those things. You know, it's it's uh when you're shark fishing, it's it's like catfishing. And you know, I grew up when I was little. I grew up on a ranch and we had several stock ponds and stuff, and we had bass and catfish, and my favorite thing was catfishing. So I guess I kind of got used to waiting for that bite. And when I really did get into sharks, I realized hey, this is pretty much the same thing because I might sit there for ten or twelve hours and nothing happened, and all of a sudden boom, it picks up, right? And then there's there's decades where I'm out there and it's shark after shark after shark after shark. I mean it's just continuous. It's it's uh right place, right time, and and uh conditions are perfect and there's a lot of bait to surf and and these fish are just really in this frenzy and and it doesn't matter what you throw out if you're gonna hook a fish, right?
SPEAKER_04And it doesn't matter where you kayak that bait to it can be 200 yards out you're gonna catch a big bull or you can yak it out 500 yards and then boom next thing you know you got a big old seven tiger on you know it every day's different and uh between these bull bulls and these tigers it's they're just so big and so gripy uh the the tigers uh are probably my favorite shark to catch because they're so they're so beautiful I mean right I I love the strength right uh I've caught many tiger sharks and uh I've got a I've got a dumb question I'm gonna interrupt you with so you you talked earlier about you know your catch and release so what's the rule or the law on on catching sharks is it is there is there any under any circumstances are you allowed to keep a shark or harvest a shark or is it always catch and release?
SPEAKER_05Well here in Texas the uh the bonnet head the Atlantic shark nose and the black tip it's one per person per day and it has to be 24 inches long just them three sharks shows now when you get to the bigger sharks like the bulls and the hammerheads and the tiger sharks you can keep them but there's a minimum size limit and I don't want to lie it's it's 60 something inches for little those fish and I I but like I said I'm not gonna lie uh right because I don't know right offhand because I never keep them um but yes you can keep those bigger sharks as well as long as they're over a certain size. Um do I recommend the way it really focuses on catch and release of them right yeah that's the thing right so if if I'm fishing I got clients and they really want to keep a shark whether for the meat or for the jaws the blacktip sharks are plentiful and uh we catch a lot of blacktips and and and I usually tell them say look you want to keep the sharks let's keep this black tips you get the trophy you get the jaws out of him and then you get the meat and the black tips are really good to eat. The bigger sharks they're not good to eat. They are not you know um back in the day before I got into conservation you know I'd I would kill these sharks. I did but um as I got older I've learned and so now I'm tagging them for this heart research out of Port Aranzas and uh turning in the tags information to them so they can track these sharks. When Spike catches them they they pull the tags out you know and they they turn them in so they can see how much they've grown and uh how much they weigh now because you can get the weight from the length and the girth so you can tell how much they weigh. Um but yeah the bigger sharks I I guess it's like anything else you know people talk about catfish the bigger catfish ain't gonna eat I guess it's the same thing with these big sharks. They're fishy right so my recommendation you catch a shark don't keep one over six footcha that's my opinion and that's what I do I don't kill sharks now like I said if we have a client that really wants one to eat I'll be like okay we can harvest this right right it's legal it's totally legal and uh now I do have them die sometimes sure right and the ones that do die and I can't revive I'll I'll keep them and I'll eat them but uh but all the bigger sharks you know I've I've always been successful at releasing them and watching them swim off so that's always been great.
SPEAKER_04But before we run out of time I I do want to is it okay if I quote your your rates from your website here?
SPEAKER_03Sure.
SPEAKER_04Yeah absolutely so yeah I'm on the uh M6 Outfitters website here and you guys like we talked about in previous shows you guys have everything from from addicts to zebra and everything in between uh you guys are are dove hunting and we'll talk about that in a second but on the shark fishing so I I was looking at this and honestly I was thinking about me and my um 11 year old and thinking about what a cool uh experience that might be and uh looking at it and a full day of fishing uh from 8 a.m to 6 p.m is 850 bucks and and is that per person or that's not that's up to six people that's a group that's up to six people that's for the group and I mean and if there's seven or more it's just twenty five dollars per per person so that's really not a bad price at all for you know that's like less than 150 bucks a person for an all day you can't do anything now for less than 150 bucks uh I can't even take my family out to eat nearly for 150 bucks so it's like man uh and then you guys also offer an overnight uh excursion so you're fishing all night uh up till 12 p.m the next the next day yeah wow that's if if somebody calls me and asks questions uh most of the time I say hey let me call Dwayne let me let me confirm all this but uh I I'm gonna recommend the overnight it's to me it seems like I mean it's a couple hundred more dollars right but yeah your success rate on that overnight and then you get the full experience uh that overnight bill is just it's a lot of fun I mean and it's it's not for everybody but right it it if that's something you're into it's a lot of fun yeah with a higher success rate sure it it is it is a higher success rate it seems like that middle of the day and people talk about the pressure and the tides and the currents seems like to me at least that middle of the day is just slow, long and boring but as soon as it gets that like that little cool wind comes through right before sunset it's like all right it's here in a minute in a minute when we go time yeah you know and and we'll catch these sharks you know right when that sun's going down or even like I said between midnight and four o'clock in the morning you hear that reel singing so like right now is a perfect time for us cowout hunters when no nothing wants to move out there even even at night to to think about booking a shark fishing trip because you know but when you're when you're count hunting at midnight and nothing's biting it's like all right I'm no reason to stay up all night now.
SPEAKER_03Right exactly but uh no shark fishing's really different it's like all right that's me time right so now season go ahead go ahead one thing I wanted to to bring up before I before I forget so I talked about these pin senators I've actually upgraded now so I'm not using senators no more I'm using what they call Abbott reels 50 wides and 80 wides so these are two speed reels so I got a high speed and a low speed on these same reels and they hold a lot more line like on on my bigger reels I'm getting about 1600 yards of braid on these reels.
SPEAKER_05So when these big fish do start pulling drag I got plenty of line to fight these fish with so and it makes it a lot easier you know on these kids and these adults you know they're not sitting there for two or three hours winching on this thing.
SPEAKER_04If I kick that thing in a low gear I know I sure appreciate that mine comes right in right got more torque and you're bringing him in a lot quicker. Yeah that makes sense a hundred percent what kind of season I mean are we are we in the peak season right now is it uh what's the best right now right now summertime okay is my favorite time of year there's more sharks different species of sharks out and about right now right so come springtime your um the well right before spring is is when the makos come in and then springtime your bulls start showing up and the black tips and whatnot uh a lot of black tips and then the black tips the bulls they hang out and then as the water warms up the the hammerheads start showing up and they start showing up the big tiger sharks start showing up and so right now we have every species you could imagine uh out there in the Gulf swimming around within yaking distance of the beach.
SPEAKER_05Uh just last weekend we went out we caught a my son caught a a nice um dusky shark uh first one he's ever caught which was nine foot really fun fish to catch um but like I said all these different species of sharks during the summertime they're here right now and we're catching them all now are you guys already completely booked up or you guys have some spots left or what's the story on that there's still uh we so we go on Saturdays and Saturdays and Sundays and there's still a bit of I mean the next three weeks are booked up but yeah uh there's there's quite there's quite a bit of openings. Yeah uh for the weekends I I I try to get everything booked you know during the summertime up through October uh until it starts cooling off because once that water cools off quite a bit all the sharks kind of tend to move offshore right right because the water gets too cold for them and stuff. But uh you know somebody wanted to book you know a trip during the week I could probably take out work to do it. But we usually do weekends because I I got an eight to five job during the week and stuff. So I I tend to want to do more on the weekends and stuff. But the problem with that too is is picking the right weekend because of the weather situation. You know because if if it's windy and circus rough I just can't get baits out there because you know I can't get past those bars in my kayak and that's the deal you know trying to kayak and stuff. Now if they wanted to run the beach and you know I've got uh almost 30 miles of beach that I pick and choose to fish right between Hydra Island and Port Arndis.
SPEAKER_04So um if you're staying in Port Arandis you'll be 10-15 minutes away from where we're gonna fish you know and you're you know we're we're close to uh gas gas stations and places to eat and you know if you bring your kids which um I hope you do because uh my boys like going with us and they like to entertain as well and um we got plenty of fish to catch especially for the kids to keep them occupied right you know with the whiting and the redfish and the pompano and the skip jacks and everything that's out there in the surface we don't just fish for sharks we fish for everything everything that's biting right and I supply all the tackle I have everything you need okay well you got me amped up man I'm gonna I'm gonna uh sweet talk the wife and I'm not very I'm not very good at that you know anymore I used to be better at that but I'll I'll I'll work on it and see what we can see what we get accomplished on that deal but well guys I we're out of time unfortunately for the this week but uh it's been so much fun talking about sharks and I've learned a whole lot you've uh quadrupled my knowledge just in the time we've had together today so and uh and we'll keep in touch so thank you guys and uh and uh enjoy the rest of your day and thank you for having us stay tuned like here will return after these messages let's face it whether you farm or ranch or race wildlife you've encountered problems with predators no doubt my friends at Texas Farm and Ranch Wildlife Solutions have the answer to your predator nuisance farmant problems they specialize in taking care of those pesky raccoons coyotes bobcats beavers whatever wildlife issues you're having at Texas Farm and Ranch Wildlife Solutions is your answer. Call my friend Philip Wood at 713 2083517 at 713517 you can find him online at tfrwf.com he's a professional trapper he knows what he's doing he has the right resources and the right techniques to get the job done if you don't believe him look at his website and see all the happy customers he's racked up over the years. Phillip Woods with Texas Farm and Ranch Wildlife Solutions give him a call you'll be glad you did let them help protect your land and livestock well that's all the time we have for this week's episode thanks for stopping by me and old Hank the guard dog will catch you next week at the same time same place. If you can't join us on a local station find the show on Apple Podcasts Spotify or wherever you find podcasts. Also you can connect with us on Facebook and share your hunting and outdoor photos and stories with us at Lone StarTrailradio at gmail.com. Until next time for all of us here at the show so long.
