You're not going to need a bigger boat

The cool waters around the UK are increasingly populated by sharks, so Nick Fisher sets out with a trusted team to try to catch one. Just don’t mention Jaws…

There was a time when, if you wanted to go shark fishing, you went to Looe in Cornwall. Looe was the epicentre of shark fishing in the UK, mostly for the smaller, more placid blue shark. Indeed, I went to film an episode of Screaming Reels with shark aficionado Mike Thrussell hunting the blues.

But slowly, anglers have started to notice sharks all over the place. Sightings in the past few years have included porbeagles in 6ft of water off Chesil Beach, packs of thresher sharks in Plymouth harbor, mako sharks in the English Channel and even a possible great white shark or two.

Shark fishing trips are now available all around the south coast. One of the biggest concentrations of shark encounters is practically on my doorstep just off the tip of Portland Bill, where large numbers of baitfish and fat bass attracted by the swift currents keep the toothy monsters entertained and fed.

But if you don’t want to book a charter and have a mind to go and catch a shark from your own boat, how do you go about it?

White wedding

Planning a shark fishing trip is a lot like planning a wedding. The devil is in the detail. Every area, from catering to seating plan and bridesmaids’ dresses, needs to be locked in early. Otherwise things can go desperately wrong, there will be tears before bedtime and someone is going to start quoting lines from Jaws. Small Paul was on tackle and traces. He bought a broken shark reel from eBay and reconditioned it with new bearings. He made up ‘bite traces’ and ‘rolling traces’ out of gear cable wire from his defunct racing car and ordered three litres of sardine oil from Decathlon.