Had my flyfishing buddy Marcus in town from Boise. Marcus grew up in the LBC, graduated from Long Beach State, made some coin and ditched Cali for the outdoor climes of Idaho. Still, salt is in his blood and he needs to feed that Jones, so off we went yesterday looking for some makos on the fly.
I've had the fly gear to target makos and other big game fish, but just lacked the crew with the requisite experience and more importantly, the interest. Not so with Marcus as he's a fly fishing fiend, but also very good on the conventional. We launched from Dana Pt. and cruised from off the Domes to the 267 looking for good water. It was bad down there and got worse as you approached the 267 where it was pea soup green and 64.2. So I bended it up towards the 14 and the fabled black marlin waters. About a mile or two short of the 14 the water shot up to 68 and really cleaned up, though still a milky tint to it. It was the best we had seen so we set up there. Also the wind was up in the morning, calmer south of the Domes, worse as we got to the 14, but it calmed to a virtual lake by the evening.
It took about 2+ hours for the first mako to show up. We were IGFA rigged with 12" of single strand 69# wire bite tippet, followed by 20" of Tournament 16# class tippet and then 5' of 50 lb butt section. This was my first effort with makos on fly gear. Markus being a dry fly trout fishing guru was programmed to strike immediately as the shark bit the fly. They often grabbed the fly at the back in and he was simply pulling it out of their mouth. Then he tried stripping it in and though the makos would follow and strike, they'd inevitably short strike it to injure their quarry which is not conducive to a hook set. Finally, it was time for me to play guide. I hooked a mackerel filet on straight 20 lb threw it out and told Marcus to watch how the mako eats. It swam up, grabbed the filet and turned away then I set up on the fish. I told Marcus to treat the fly like a chunk in the chum line and set up on the fish when it turns away. Forget the strip striking cat and mouse game.
You get two types of fights on the makos. They either turn on the after burners going on a screaming run filled with jumps, or they punk around the boat. The first hook up the mako turned on the after burners, jumped, landed on the leader and broke off. That fish took off with two of our flies in it. The second fish inhaled the fly and punked around in circles off the transom on slack line. Finally, Marcus reeled up the slack and came tight and the fish just punked around the boat fighting deep, no jumps, no blistering runs. Marcus was on his 7.5' TFO 8wt bass fly fishing rod and had a blast. The fish looked to be about 55 to 60 lbs and as I was trying to recover the fly it won that battle and took off with yet another fly of ours.
Never saw another mako for me to try it out. Wind was up in the AM, but completely died off in the afternoon to where it was a lake in the evening. Saw and talked to Mike, El Capo who was out there testing lures and hoping for a blackie. Couple others out there also trolling for the mythical blackie.
Some photos of Marcus on his fish:
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