bleeding tuna and sharks

[olblugill]

okay the answer may be obvious but I need to hear it from someone with experience. I completed a bleeding bucked out of black corrugated plastic 14 inch tube bracketed to the stern. Actually modeled it after a design from someone on the board. I am tired of bleeding tuna inside the cockpit. The garbage can takes up room and things are messy enough inside. Everyone says don't bleed the the tuna outside the boat because the sharks will follow. Am I worried about sharks eating the tuna when I catching them or am I worried about the sharks keeping the tuna away? both? any experiences? I figure I can use a couple of heavy duty garbage sacks in the tube to prevent the blood from draining into the ocean- just want to know the reason behind this. I can see when I am slow trolling but not so sure if the sharks will keep up on a fast troll- I am sure they could but will they?

[wak'm&stak'm]

Salmon sharks (Lamna ditropis) are large, powerful, warm-bodied (endothermic), and streamlined predators adapted for high-speed swimming. Reports from the U.S. Navy have clocked salmon sharks exceeding 50 knots. This would make the salmon shark one of the fastest fish in the ocean.

I am not sure how fast you troll, but i think they can keep up with ya.

* as a side note, I find it pretty cool that we have one of the fastest fish in the WORLD off our coast. When you consider the competition...Wahoo, marlin, sails, and such. One of these days I am going to catch one of the darn things. I have seen them plenty of times, and I have taken a salmon jigged for shark bait several times when tuna fishing, but never see them when I do.

I know i know...Wak you aren't supposed to use salmon for bait... blah blah blah

[Foreel]

Yes and no--I'm not that worried about sharks..I have had then take a tuna or two but not on a regular basis...I bleed my fish into a large ice chest off the back of my boat that has a pump that pumps salt water to my wash down and the bleed tank...No fish come onto my boat I dont like the slickness for safety reasons and the bugs too..plus I dont like the mess..thats just me I'm a wus..never the less I spine stick my Tuna and then gill bleed them..when I'm woried about sharks I put the plug in the tank until its full and then dump it all at one time...It seems to work for me..

[Irish Pennant]

It's not as big of a problem as you would think it is.

[LQQKASTAR]

Dont wory about it, if the biggy's get you, call me.
ray :

[Pau Hana]

Originally Posted by olblugill

Everyone says don't bleed the the tuna outside the boat because the sharks will follow.

Put your mind at rest, and bleed the things in your can, or on deck. No need to carry additional weight (bags full of blood) on any boat.

The biggest threat that sharks pose is to your live bait (if you have any to toss). Once you power up and get back on the troll, the sharks will be gone.


50 mph shark? Doubt it- I could believe maybe 20...

[fishbait]

Doubt if you will find the Sharkes to be a significant problem. Your 14 in tube sounds somewhat small. I really like the boats that have room on the swim deck or off shore platform for a garbage can ( square works good) to be tied on, that way you can get 5-8 fish in the bleed bucket at a time and then gill, gut and ice when you have time after the bite has died down.

[BiteFactory]

Now that is interesting - how fast do sharks swim? To the google!

Measuring their speed is not easy, especially with the sprinters, so expect a wide variation of data.

Most sharks are cold blooded and cruise at a speed of around 1.5mph.

Blue sharks - cruise 17mph, sprint maybe up to 43mph. These are the long distance runners. They are persistent in following when they do find something interesting.

These sharks - lamnids - are able to maintain higher blood temperatures giving them a leg up on the sprint...

short fin mako - sprint 31 to 46mph, maybe even as high as 68mph in one sketchy case.

Great White - 25 to 35mph.

Salmon shark - (2nd hand info) navy measurement of 50 kts or mph. Couldn't find the navy report(s) but it could very well be true.

http://www.elasmo-research.org/educa...'_bass.htm
http://www.elasmo-research.org/educa...hark_speed.htm
http://conservationinstitute.org/oce...lmonsharks.htm
http://conservationinstitute.org/adnsharks.htm

[Onokai]

Its a real problem if you are using live bait and drifting with a school feeding on your stern while catching them on live bait and swim baits-then the sharks show up and that bait stop is over. We just shut off the drain on bait stops- when trolling who cares-and thats about how my crew feels about trolling as well .When sharks show this is what the fish look like. Mark

[Serious Fun]

I've not had much problem with sharks hitting the tuna, but I have lost some expensive gear to sharks hitting my tackle and cutting it off! I have had a leopard shark nose right up to my scupper where we had been pumping out the fish well, blood and all, as well as zillions of blue shark circling the boat when we stop to boat a tuna or untangle gear. All in all, not a real issue worth altering your protocols for.

[Tom Kim]

Originally Posted by olblugill

okay the answer may be obvious but I need to hear it from someone with experience. I completed a bleeding bucked out of black corrugated plastic 14 inch tube bracketed to the stern. Actually modeled it after a design from someone on the board. I am tired of bleeding tuna inside the cockpit. The garbage can takes up room and things are messy enough inside. Everyone says don't bleed the the tuna outside the boat because the sharks will follow. Am I worried about sharks eating the tuna when I catching them or am I worried about the sharks keeping the tuna away? both? any experiences? I figure I can use a couple of heavy duty garbage sacks in the tube to prevent the blood from draining into the ocean- just want to know the reason behind this. I can see when I am slow trolling but not so sure if the sharks will keep up on a fast troll- I am sure they could but will they?

Dont worry about the sharks... Unless you are drifting, its the least thing you should worry about. I have to tell you a story though. One time while trolling, I looped the tuna's tail with a rope and threw them overboard after their gills were ripped out . amazingly this worked very well as it kept them from doing the death twitch and heating their body temperature. However, when we had multiple hook ups we forgot all about the 2 fish hanging on the ropes. You could guess what happened to those fish. By the time we realized the rope fish were being attacked by the blue sharks, both fish came back with only portions of their tails.
Bottom line, best way to blead them is buckets of garbage cans.

tom

[frogwaterkid]

Here is a little info off a web site, who knows if it is true:

Fish

max. recorded speed (kph)

speed (mph)

1.
Sailfish
110
68
2.
Marlin
80
50
3.
Wahoo
78
48
4.
Tunny
74
46
5.
Bluefish tuna
70
44
6.
Great blue shark
69
43
=7.
Bonefish
64
40
=7.
Swordfish
64
40
=9.
Four-winged flying fish
56
35
=9.
Tarpon
56
35

[wdlfbio]

Dad taught us that if we're having shark problems near the boat, give the fish a freespool (thumbed of course) and watch him out-run the shark. Then, hurry up and get a gaff in it

[fishonjon]

If you bleed the sharks will the tuna come hooked a couple of blues on clones in the slide. Bolth of us were suprised.