Bethune Beach Night Sharking - 37" Atlantic Sharpnose

Lately I've been studying night shark fishing more thorough, especially on the surf zone. I learned though without a kayak, we won't be able to deploy our baits very far. It basically comes down to how far we can cast, which isn't easy with bigger heavier baits. I purchased a new 12' surf rod to help with distance a little bit.
For lighting, I have some old headlamps that I used to wear on the St Johns River while catfishing at night. I also have some glow rod tips for bite detection. The glowsticks are definitly something I'll bring on every night surf fishing trip. They make it easy to see the rod tip action while the bait is soaking in the water.

Overall I'm still learning the ropes on night shark fishing. I've been to the beach at night twice before and didn't have any luck. Last night I took my neighbor, Steve, out to the same spot for a third attempt. I actually fished this spot twice before with my friend Zack but we didn't have any luck. Probably due to lack of propper bait deployment, I was using really long 4' mono leaders that were more difficult to cast. I've since changed back to using about a 14-16" sections of single strand wire. It paid off because we got two hits tonight using wire rigs. The first hit was on a ladyfish head. I felt the fish running and it actually pulled a little drag but then all of a sudden it was gone. After retrieving the line I noticed my hook was bare. My best guess is the bait wasn't all the way in the mouth and I just pulled the hook out.
The second hit was on Steve's side, he was using my 10' Okuma Tundra rod. The bait was the tail section of a ladyfish. The fish was on and Steve reeled it in pretty good. Once he got them to the shoreline and I could see it was a shark. It was actually a 37" Atlantic Sharpnose shark, the biggest shark I've seen landed so far from me and my fishing buddies. Steve wanted to keep the shark to give the meat to his boss. As a nice gesture, he let me keep the jaws from the shark. Here's the finished shark jaws, they are about 4.5" long! I didn't get a picture of the shark because my iphone completely died while we were fishing on the beach.