Hi Hewy,
No salmon sharks around Vancouver, but lots further North, such as in Haida Gwaii. Those things can get pretty big and mean, and when you get into them, it's hard to catch anything else. I have only killed one when guiding and my customers took the meat home and ate it, apparently very good tasting meat according to lots of others I have spoken to. We took one around 4.5ft long, not a big one by salmon shark standards, but still topped out over 85lbs and didn't want to put my hands anywhere near the front end for a while after bringing it in the boat. We got them on everything from herring, to Norwegian cod jigs, and had plenty of salmon sapped off our lines by them, often you get a head back with a surgically removed body, or a perfect half moon removed from a tail section, they'll attack halibut too. We tried dead-baiting for them, but didn't have much luck, did much better trolling for them, ad most often hooked them while trolling for salmon and having them hammer bait out of the rigger clip (also heard of them attacking rigger balls and ripping off people's dummy flashers).
Unless you're planning on eating it, no point killing it, and good luck getting a large fish out of the water and released again without netting it (most would mangle a landing net) or subduing it somehow. If you're looking for the "hero shot" (not a fan of the term), leave it in the water, unless you're somehow (given the territory) near land and can do it like a sturgeon release shot. Otherwise, take it home and eat it !
I've heard of guys finding them off VI too, but can't say too much else. We get a variety of sharks out this way, more than people think, the daily limit for salmon sharks is 1, and 2 possession. Other than salmon sharks and dogfish, I believe it's zero retention of all other types of sharks (it may even be that you can't even target them, but need to check that), I've seen my share of blue sharks (accidental catch) and had a number up to the boat, they're snakey bastards and can double back on themselves while you're trying to unhook them.
Happy hunting !
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Topic: can u catch sharks in local waters (Read 7844 times)