Coincidentally, I used to live just a little north of Stewart (1960's +), in fact had some family in Stuart. Where I lived the best surf fishing was around Wabasso and or down to Sabastian Inlet. When a young, 'less than really smart' young man I would often night fish from the beach all up and down that area.
I'd bait up my hook/s, then set my reel in free spool and lay it down on the beach, take the 18"-20" leader in my teeth with the bait hanging down and swim it out a couple hundred yards. Then I'd drop the leader/bait and swim back into the beach, pick up my rod/reel and set back for the bite.
hardly ever even thought about sharks with that bait hanging just a foot or so below my face, and yet sharks were among the most often caught fish along all that stretch of beach between Wabasso and Sabastion. Typically Lemons, often a Nurse, occasionally a Blacktip or a Bull. Those were the most commonly caught. We'd catch the Lemons and Nurse sharks most all year, but generally the others were more predominant during the summer.
I guess we're just lucky we never really did anything really stupid when we were young and 'less than smart', huh KF'77?.
