Angels from Below (6/24)

[Latimeria]

The last minute morning plan was to catch something to harvest.  Plan A was to anchor up and drop some squid looking for a Biscuit, Yellow or Halibut but those plans were thwarted when I found my anchor line all tangled to hell.  Well, it took 30 minutes before I could unwrap her and try to anchor, but the bottom was too hard and I couldn't get the hook to stick well enough.  At that point I decided to drift.

Macks were scarce, but I brought a chum bag with me and dropped it over.  It did it's job and the macks stayed around the boat.  I made another drift and dropped the bag even lower in the water column.  As I was drifting macks, I heard a loud *SNAP* and looked back to see my chum bag line all floating!  I pulled in the line and looked around for sea lions, but nothing popped up.  I'm not sure what the hell happened.  Shark?  Old derelict fishing gear? Who the hell knows...

I then have a great hit and felt like a big butt!  I worked her up slow and was shocked to see about a 3 plus foot Angel Shark.  I lip gaffed her to get a few pics in the boat when babies started popping out!  I didn't even get a pic of her, but dropped her back in immediately and saw her spit one out on the way down.  I turned my attention to freeing these little fockers!  They were pretty cute!  I let 6 of them go and they all swam straight down.  Totally were ready for the world.



I continue my drifts when my big weight rod doubles over.  It was going in a B-line and not stopping at all even after clamping down on the drag.  I had to start the boat and chase it down, but I was expecting a big BSB.  About an hour long battle and a few miles of chasing, I see a big brown body ascending from the deep.  "Sea Lion?" popped in my head and then I saw the tail!  It was a HUGE thresher shark!!!  My best guess is about 2 bills, but wow!  It was like 14' long with the tail!!!  I'm scrambling to find a tail rope and gaff while not alarming the shark, but it was too late.  I dropped something in the boat and startled it because it took a speeding run and HUGE jump just to clip my line.... UGH...
I was depressed, but not that much since it was an awesome fight and something totally unexpected.  I was stoked to say the least!

Now back to trying to find something to harvest...

It was getting towards when I had to be taking off and only had a few drifts left.  I saw my same rod do a funny bounce and just start loading up.  Once again, it fought like a halibut, but felt MUCH bigger!  I had dreams of seeing a 50# butt on the deck!  I saw deep color and it looked right for about a minute when I saw I had another Angel Shark on!  I lip gaffed the beast and brought it in the boat.  No babies came out so I dropped her in the kill bag to ice her down.

It was a few inches short of 5' and NA'd my cheap digital scale, but looked to be just at 50 pounds.  In any case it was a beast and tough as sh!t to filet!  The skin is tough like a trigger fish and there was a strong fish smell to her.  The belly was loaded with weird stuff I couldn't identify and there was not as much meat on her as I thought there would be.  The meat was pure white and looks to be awesome table fare.



Well, anyway... Thanks for reading.  I heard of a few tuna being caught on the radio, but it seemed to only be a few lucky guys getting a few nice fish.  I heard a guy get a 165# Bluefin fairly close on a kite.

[Fish Jerk]

Awesome job. Those babies look cool as hell. Angel shark is supposed to be very good eating.

[sasquatch]

Quit hogging up the angel sharks.

[xjchad]

Rad catch Tom!
Love seeing those babies!

[SevengillTheVC]

Nice Angel! They are good eating, Andria's Fish and Chips up here in Ventura harbor sells it as their original fish and chips and it's delicious. Too bad on the Thresher though!

[Pinoyfisher]

You are one sharky SOB!!! Those babies angels are pretty cute!

[vdisney]

Super bummer about the thresher shark, that would have been a lot of table fare.  I'm just glad your new ride is treating you well   

[Eric H]

Those things are some heavy weights, nice tom

[BenCantrell]

Holy potatoes. 

[spideyjg]

In any case it was a beast and tough as sh!t to filet!  The skin is tough like a trigger fish and there was a strong fish smell to her. 

Overkill never hurts. 

Splitter with a 16 inch blade and 7.5 lbs