Shark Fishing Trips
Catching Sharks with Captain John
These are Nearshore Fishing Trips just a mile or two off the coast where the sharks are plentiful and it takes little time to arrive and start fishing! Everything you need to fish is included!
Shark Fishing Rates
3 Hour Shark Fishing Trip
$450
Prices are for up to 4 people
$50 each additional person
Maximum 6 people
These are Nearshore Fishing Trips just a mile or two off the coast where the sharks are plentiful and it takes little time to arrive and start fishing!
Everything You Need to Fish is
Included on all Fishing Charters
Fishing licenses, tackle, bait, ice, fish cleaning, etc.
A gratuity of 15 – 20% is customary on fishing charters and is very much appreciated!
Floating Time Charters provides specialized Shark Fishing Trips in Daytona Beach!
If you want to go fishing for sharks, you came to the right place. Daytona Beach is the center of action for shark fishing in Florida.
Sharks are everywhere around Daytona Beach!
From the majestic monsters off the shores of Daytona Beach like the Great Hammerhead Sharks and and Mako Sharks, to their fierce fighting cousins that inhabit the brackish estuaries around Daytona Beach like Bull Sharks and Atlantic Sharpnose Sharks, and all the waters in between, there are plenty of sharks to be caught in Daytona Beach!
‘Keepers’ or ‘Catch and Release’
Some shark species are seasonal while others may be ‘Keepers’ or ‘Catch and Release’. Captain John is always aware and abiding of Florida and federal fishing regulations. Above all we want you to have a fun and memorable fishing experience here in Daytona Beach and will do our best to make sure everyone aboard has a great time.
The Shark Zone!
The tourists who swim in the waters just off Daytona Beach already know there are sharks in the water. What they don’t know is when they swim out to that sandbar a hundred yards off the beach to collect sand dollars, they are on the very edge of the Shark Zone! Where the sandy bottom drops off on the other side of that first sand bar, just beyond the white crested breaker waves, sharks by the thousands are plying the shallow ocean bottom for prey. From the breakers to just a couple of miles out to sea, sharks are more plentiful than anywhere else along the Florida Coast.
There’s no need to go on a deep sea fishing trip far offshore when all the sharks you can catch are right there near the shore. You just need to know how to catch them. That’s where an experienced Daytona Beach shark fishing guide like Captain John of Floating Time Charters comes in.
Let’s Go Shark Fishing!
Welcome to the Shark Fishing Capital of Florida!
There are other places in Florida that call themselves Florida’s Shark Fishing Capital but none deserve the title more than Daytona Beach. Why? Read on and learn why Daytona Beach is the best place in Florida for shark fishing. Of course, if you want to find out for yourself, one shark fishing trip with Floating Time Charters will make you a believer!
Captain John’s Floating Time Charters will take you on the shark fishing trip of a lifetime, just minutes from the shores of Daytona Beach. The variety of sharks that inhabit these nearshore waters will amaze you! Blacktip Sharks, Lemon Sharks, Bull Sharks, Mako Sharks, Nurse Sharks, Hammerhead Sharks, Bonnethead Sharks and Atlantic Sharpnose Sharks are just a few of the many shark species encountered on our Daytona Beach shark fishing trips. Captain John has been fishing for sharks in Daytona Beach for over 25 years. He has the experience, knowledge and skills to help you catch sharks! And Captain John loves shark fishing!
Watch Out for Sharks!
You may already know that Florida is the Shark Attack Capital of the World! With 1,350 miles of coastline (second only to Alaska) and tens of millions of tourists bathing in the warm Florida waters each year, it’s little surprise that on average, 3 out of 10 shark attacks worldwide take place in Florida. But don’t panic! The record for unprovoked shark attacks in Florida is 37, set in the year 2000. That’s unprovoked as opposed to provoked attacks caused by human interaction such as untangling a shark from a fishing net or grabbing a young shark by the tail while thinking the shark is too small to bite. Bad idea!
Twenty unprovoked shark attacks a year is more the average for Florida. And these are seldom fatal. Of the one or two fatal shark attacks a year in the US, for some reason Hawaii and California have the largest number of fatal shark attacks! A little known fact is that you’re 4 times more likely to be killed by an alligator in Florida than a shark. According to Wikipedia, there were 4 fatal shark attacks in Florida between the years 2000 and 2016 and 16 fatal alligator attacks in Florida in the same time period! Chew on that!
Yes, you can swim safely in Florida waters without constantly worrying about becoming a shark bite statistic, but it’s smart to follow a few common sense basic rules when swimming, wading or surfing along the Florida coast.
1) If you’re bleeding, don’t go in the water. Period.
2) Don’t toss food to sea gulls or other sea creatures when you’re in the water.
3) Don’t attach the fish you caught while surf fishing to your body. Actually wading into the water to fish, especially with real bait is not a good idea.
4) Stay in groups when swimming or playing in the water. Sharks are always looking for the individual fish, dolphin or other creature separated from the group.
5) Keep splashy horseplay to a minimum. This can be mistaken for a creature in distress by a shark.
This last piece of advice about how to avoid a shark attack is not so much common sense as understanding the habits and habitats of sharks.
6) Do not swim out past the first sandbar! Sharks constantly patrol the deeper areas between sandbars. This is their territory and this is also where we love to go fishing for sharks in Daytona Beach.
Daytona Beach is the shark attack capital of Florida!
Of the more than 730 recorded shark attacks in Florida in the last 120 years, more than a third of these attacks have been in Volusia County, home of Daytona Beach! The large number of tourists bathing in the waters off Daytona Beach and the popularity of surfing in Daytona Beach and nearby New Smyrna Beach (also in Volusia County) give plenty of opportunities for sharks to interact with humans.
But why so many sharks in Daytona Beach?
Sharks migrate along the Atlantic Coast of Florida by the millions, swimming north as the water warms each Spring and south again as the water cools each Autumn. Schools of thousands of sharks such as hammerhead sharks can be seen each year migrating along the Florida Coast. Surely there are places in Florida such as the Miami area that have far more people swimming off the beaches than Daytona Beach creating plenty of opportunities for shark attacks. However, Volusia County, including Daytona Beach, is a very special magnet for sharks for the same reason the fishing is exceptionally good here.
The Gulf Stream steadily moves north all year long along the Florida Coast carrying nature’s nutritional soup of plankton (tiny, even microscopic plants and animals) that make up the base of the marine food chain. Following and feasting on the plankton are all the marine creatures up the food chain including the apex predator, sharks. Just south of Volusia County (including Daytona Beach and New Smyrna Beach) lies Cape Canaveral, that big bulge on the East Central Coast of Florida. That big bulge, Cape Canaveral, juts far enough out into the Atlantic Ocean to divert the Gulf Stream waters northeasterly, away from the coast. As the Gulf Stream is pushed away from the coastline by Cape Canaveral, it creates the largest eddy on the Atlantic Coast south of Cape Hatteras in North Carolina.
That super sized eddy, where the flowing waters of the Gulf Stream and its nutritional soup are slowed and trapped behind the cape, creates a huge buffet of food sources for ocean predators such as sharks. The effect of the eddy allows marine life to linger off the coast compared to the faster moving waters of the Gulf Stream. It’s like a giant food and fuel service center on the Florida Turnpike where travelers pull over to refuel. That super sized eddy is located just north of Cape Canaveral. And just north of Cape Canaveral is Volusia County and Daytona Beach, the Shark Fishing Capital of Florida!
Add to that the rich nutrients and marine life of the Halifax River and all the coastal estuaries that empty onto the Atlantic Ocean near Daytona Beach at Ponce Inlet plus the numerous nearshore artificial reefs just off the coast and you have a Shark Paradise!
Nothing can compare to the exhilarating experience of doing battle with the fiercest predator in the sea. So when you’re ready to go shark fishing in Daytona Beach, contact Captain John of Floating Time charters.
For Plenty More Fishing Pictures from Floating Time Charters with Captain John Schmidt visit our Photo Gallery
For great shark fishing in Pensacola visit Pensacola Beach Fishing Trips.