For targeting blacktips and spinners, my personal favorite chumming method involves bringing along a bucketful of small menhaden, grabbing a handful and squeezing. Some of them will float, others will sink quickly and others slowly. This creates a feeding frenzy situation with sharks that can allow you to sight cast to them with cut bait.

I once had more than 50 blacktips and spinners feeding behind the boat and ended up catching and tagging 30 of them for the Mote Marine Laboratory. These two species are highly acrobatic and rival billfish in terms of tail walking. I personally believe the spinner to be equal to the tarpon in that department.

The ideal setup for this kind of fishing is having one bait on the bottom for species like bull sharks and Atlantic sharpnose and a couple of free lines to get the species that feed in the upper level of the water column.

Jetties are also good spots to target sharks, especially bulls and Atlantic sharpnose during the summer.

Fish with big chunks of cut bait on incoming tides as they bring in sharks from out around the short rigs. Chumming works great at the jetties as well although you tend to not get as many of the smaller, schooling blacktips and spinners.

Chester Moore, Jr. is the Port Arthur News Outdoors Editor. To contact Chester Moore, e-mail him at cmoore@fishgame.com. You can hear him on the radios Fridays from 6-7 p.m. on Newstalk AM 560 KLVI or online at www.klvi.com.