To shorten it up. We lost a 250 pounder after a missed gaff, he went deep, and that was all she wrote, sort of.....
Long version:
Well, I've been planning the is trip for over two weeks, and of course, the weather became an issue. To go, not to go. Watched the forecast and water temps, and chlorophyll all week. All though the conditions were not perfect, I decided that the trip was worth a shot.
Called up my friends Saturday night, and let them know it was a go....picked Grant up at 5:45 am, (THE LADIES WOULD MEET US AT THE DOCS)and headed to Dana Point to make some macs. By 7:45 am we had about 50 pieces, and Christa and Deb had arrived at the doc and were ready for pick up.
The conditions were a little snotty in the morning, but laid down enough for the ride out to the Avalon Bank. Swells were 2-4, and wind waves were 1-2. As the SST's showed, the inshore temps were WAY down...62 at Dana, and slowly crept up until I found the 66 temps that I was looking for, just west of the Bank.
By this time, the swell had built to 4-5, and the winds waves were 3 feet. And the wind was 10-15 steady. I considered calling it, so I checked the latest weather forecast on the VHF, and it didn't appear that conditions were going to get any worse.
My friend Christa was seasick,
but she's a trooper, and was willing to stay the course. So I said lets give it a shot for an hour..if the wind picks up, we'll go in. Because the chances were good that we may have to head in, I told Grant were going to MEGA CHUM. We had two five gallon buckets of chum that I had purchased and were taking up space in my deep freeze since Spring 07. Plus all the heads, guts, bits, and tails from my tuna catches this season, plus the remains of the Mako and T that I caught last fall. Included in the mix were about 4 gallons of homemade chum from macs and dines from past trips that I ground up, and froze in small buckets.
It took us about 30 minutes to get the chums strung up, and during this time, a little 3 footer came into the chum line, and was biting at the buckets at the side of the boat. It was cool to watch, and my wife’s first ever live view of a Mako.
We got our lines out, and another small mako came by and played with one of the lines, and finely seemed to grab it, so I set the hook and my wife reeled in here first ever mako.
It was quite a battle
Quick CPR and line is back out. We had several small makos play with the bait through out the day, but nothing worth getting excited about.
After about 2 hours, the chum buckets were getting low, and the sharks had disappeared. Since there was bait all around the boat, I took out the sabinki rig, and caught a quick 20 or 30 more pieces and Grant chunked them up. I also pulled in the tuna heads and parts, and cut those up in small pieces…..
From about 1 pm to 2 pm the conditions laid down a little, but began to pick up again around 3 pm. So with the conditions getting worse, and Christa being seasick (FYI..she never once asked to go in, and was always saying, she wanted to saty), we decided to call it a day. We started to clean up the boat, but left our lines out…we were about 5 minutes from having the boat prepped for the ride home, when my reel started taking line. Not fast, but steady. After about 10 seconds, it stopped, so I set the hook, and knew I had something with some girth. It took a about 15 seconds for the shark to realize it was hooked, then it started peeling off line….YES, FISH ON.
To shorten this story up (sorry, not really)…before the shark went deep, I saw the shark at the surface about 50 yards out, and estimated it to be about 150 pounds…the more it pulled, and the deeper it went, I knew it had to be bigger.
In no time it had me down to my spectra backing, and it continued to take line…..It finally slowed down, and I was able to gain back some line.
I told Grant to back down on the fish, which worked great, we had back 2/3 of the line, and off it went again….about 15 minutes in,
My back was hurting pretty good, so I passed off to Grant….With me backing down on the fish, and Grant winding down, we got the fish to color…HOLY SH#T.
He got a little side ways on us a few times...
This baby is bigger then I thought. A little nervous, I tied off the fly line gaff and waited for the right moment to stick the fish in the rear area….
I hesitated just for a second, and the gaff only nicked the shark….which off course then went ape sh#t, and came out of the water about foot….This was the first time Deborah and Christa had seen the shark….They both were saying, "HEY GUYS, maybe you guys should just cut this one loose….he’s a little bit big."
For the next 45 minutes, Grant and I traded off and did the tag team shuffle..
…drive and gaff, while the other fought the shark.
I managed to get the shark back to the boat one last time. It was pretty tired, and so was I.
.
We had it at the swim step for a about a minute (probably less). It made one attempt to jump onto the swim step, going after my legs…that was hairy, but I anticipated this and was behind the bait tank. I got a nice look at his teeth as he slid back into the water.
Sadly during this time we had two more shots to gaff the shark, but the Flying Gaff malfunctioned, and was not holding tight and popped off when Grant went to stick the shark. After the second attempt, we switched off, and I made a quick fix to the gaff, but the shark took one final DEEP run. Took Grant back to the Spectra (this was the 4th time), and never stopped running. I continued to back down on it, but the shark continued to take line.
Grant continued to pull back and reel down, but it would just take out more line each time. Grant's arms were burnt, so I took over again.
about 10 minutes later the line went limp. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I thought it had chewed through the wire leader, as it was a deep set hook, but sadly; the knot weakened, and broke. Line came up with a little “J” at the end.
Checking out the line, wanting to cry.
Can’t describe the feeling, but to say we were bummed, its an understatement.
Overall, it was a great trip. Was hoping to come back with some shark to fill our freezer, and take some back to my friends in Texas for white tail opening day. We still have two weeks before Jack, Grant and I fly to Texas, so time for one more try.
Water was 62 close in, and 66 about 20 miles out, and at the bank it got up to 66.2. Not much life. No Dolphins, and some sitting birds. Saw at least 10 nice paddies, and stopped on one....but they were in 64-65 degree water, and empty. Had one HUGE Mola Mola hang at the boat for about 10 minutes...I always get excited when I see those fish up close. Trippy looking animal.
Thanks for reading.
Catch of the day..two little ones released, and one beauty lost.
Next time. Overall can't complain, the trip went as planned. Weather was not great, but cooperated, was able to make macs quickly, found the right temps, exposed my wife and freind Christa to the fun of fishing, and what Garnt and i do when we go fishy hunting
, had sharks in the chum line right away, memories of a lifetime with friends and family, didn't sink boat, had a few beers, but
lost the fish of a lifetime.
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