Chumming

There is a guy down in Miami who runs a charter operation behind the Miami Herald building. He goes by the name of Mark The Shark http://www.marktheshark.com/. He has been fishing for sharks for several decades. He will tell you without hesitation that his best bait is cuda. He has many contacts with the commercial spearfishing guys in Miami and will regularly call them when they are out on the water to shoot him a few cudas.

From first hand knowledge, shooting a cuda and having him wounded/thrashing a for a good period out in the water, will sound the dinner bells for sharks. However, if you are in an area that is not too sharky, like spots in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale or Canaveral, then you may not see it. Shooting a cuda up here will bring bulls through in no time. I have absolutely no doubt that sharks are extremely attracted to Cudas. Weather it is the smell of their skin or otherwise, it is a known fact.

Do you think this is the case because cuda are common and if something is shot it will most often be a cuda? In other words; if a kingfish were to be shot and thrash around a little, would it bring in the same sharks that the cuda would've brought in? Or is there something on top of all that the cuda has, like a particular way of thrashing or a particularly strong smell? I realize these are hard to answer questions.

I'm not sure, but it surely is dependent on the area you are in. For example, Emil and I have really got into the mackerals up here including Kings, Emil more than I have. During this time, I can't recall seeing a shark. Although, I think Emil and JC did have an incident, but it is likely more so due to the spot as it is extremely sharky. Now, we have shot a few cudas and 9 times out of 10, someone in the water will have a shark sighting within 5-10 minutes. Again, I'm sure there are some variables. I tend to bleed most of my mackeral in the water as I think it makes a big difference in their taste, I don't think it is as much of an attraction as cuda can be. I actually feel that Cudas are more attracted to wounded mackeral than any other predator.

I think the whole smell/oil thing has something to do with it, but I think the fact that they're both predators has more. Maybe it's like being able to eat something you don't usually get at the dinner table. Also, Bonito works well for sharks too.

I'd bet it is the distinctive smell.

I strongly believe that some predator fish are better atracted by certain (bait) fish species. Local Marlin for instance love the skipjacks best than any other fish around. Big sharks are lured with oily tuna chunks. Skip jacks are oily fish, maybe it has to do with the calorie content or something ..??