A Serious Case of the Almosts and What Nots (5/26)

[Latimeria]

I couldn't sleep after that crazy ride last night, so I just need to type the report.  There were so many things that happened last night that I just have to take them in order..So I called Squatch and said I'm going out again and to meet me if he's up for it.  Well sure as sh!t, he beat me down there, but posted up right in the middle from Tuesday's trip.  I didn't get up there until 8:15 so it was getting pretty dark already. I planted up on the normal side and we started fishing.  Conditions were great.
Some guy was walking down the beach with a rod and stopped to talk.  He was telling me that he got a bass and a halibut on his first West Coast surf try ever and the halibut was about 2 feet.  Not friggand bad for a first go in the California Surf!
As I was talking to him, he mentioned he was from the east coast and he just had a great night on big Stripers and Drum with his buddy.  He pulled out his phone to show me the pics and I recognized the guy in the pics right away and said "Andrew!"  He looked up like, How do you know him!?" 
It's a small world..  He is my buddy Andrew's best friend and was out here on work.  He decided to bring a travel rod and see what he could catch and just randomly bumped into him.  I never would have known if he never took the phone out.  Steve laughed and said "I just saw those pictures last week". 



Steve started showing him pics of some of the fish we catch when I get the familiar rod bob of a Sevengill!  I get the good hookset and feel him come right to the surface and start tail slapping.  I was stoked that he was going to see his first Sevengill when he say's "Damn, let me pull my GoPro out and film it!".  Steve quickly replied "That's the camera curse" and sure enough, one more tail slap to the line and it pulled the hook! Ugh....  I've done that to a few guys (camera curse), so I can't complain about having it done to me I guess.  As Quint says, "You lose one, you rig one".

This time I grabbed the big 1569 loaded with 80-60-100 and the big 12/0 hook.  Figures I busted off on whatever rig stealer was out there, but since I only had really big baits, I retied the shock leader to go with the big rig instead of switching over to the 40# set up.
The guy left and Steve and I were just chilling when I saw my rod load up.  I'm pretty good at feeling a fight and telling what kind of big game I have hooked up.  My immediate response was Soupfin since it made a blistering run, but had these weird 90 degree angle changes of direction and quick bursts after the direction change.  It had a lot of weight to it and I could feel funny tail slaps.  Not quick and short ones, but big thumps on the bursts and smooth after that.  After 4-5 direction changes, it dumped half my spool on a run staright out.  I gave it max drag as my reel only has 22# of drag and it would never break my 60# big game main or 100# shock leader, but it never stopped screaming until it did another big quick turn and started running at me!  He got 25 yards from the beach and I thought I had him in the right spot to get a handle on him when he made a quick turn again and another burst of speed.... "TING!"  Gone!  UGH.... I reeled in thinking I lost everything when I saw I had my weight and rig... sort of.  Steve grabbed it first just to see if my crimp broke or what have you, but I was missing a foot of steel leader on a smooth cut wire of a brand new rig...  I was really feeling sick now....



Another shot...



I guess getting 3 on Tuesday meant the sea was evening things up a bit, but it made me feel like puking since I knew this was the one I looking for all these year.  Our guess was a smaller Great White or possibly a Hammerhead from the quick changes of direction, but I don't think a hammer could have clipped through that line and neither of us has any experience with something like that.  All I know it was a shark like I've never hooked into before.
As I made myself sick, Steve said I probably tightened my line too tight making it easier for him to cut through my leader, but that wasn't helping, even though I was wondering the same thing.

Steve couldn't take it and grabbed his gear and planted on the other side of me.  It wasn't long before he cut off my scent trail and was hooked up with a nice Sevengill.  He kept his drag on the looser side as not to pop off due to too tight a drag I noticed, but got it in, all 88" of him!  But wait!?!?  the thing is tagged!



Holy Crap, a tagged 7-gill!




Steve kept it to clean it up better in a controlled environment and said he "Hopes to get a hat after calling this tagged shark in" besides saying "It's my fourth tagged shark!".  That is truly impressive considering there are not many tagging surveys down here.




Steve was already running late as it was after midnight and he had to get up for work early.  Just as his timer went off, so did his rod and he was on again!
This damn shark took him 100 yards down the beach.  It appeared to be a BIG Sevengill as it behaved that way, but Steve kept a looser drag than normal, so just walked the dog down the beach.  I couldn't even see him down the dark beach, so stabilized camp and started my way down to try and find him...  He appeared like squatch in the Olympic Penninsula with nothing but a busted line!  Ugh... what a way to go!  3 lost NICE sharks and one to show for it
Steve packed up to leave when I grabbed a few nice fresh macks from him.  I burned through all my bonito, and bullet tuna and I wasn't quitting quite yet!  I didn't care if I got a parking ticket since it was after 12am, I wanted redemption!

1 o'Clock rolls around and I even set the Steve timer to remind me.  As the timer was going off, I heard another noise... MY CLICKER!  Fish on! (It really Works, Steve!)
I pussied out and kept a slightly looser drag than normal as I did not want to lose a thrird in a row!.  This one was typical soupie and I followed his ass down the beach.  I got about 60 yards away from my gear, when I had to tighten the drag just so I could get him in the surf.  No sand hand makes things rough that early in the morning!  I got my hands on her and a downpour of relief hit me.  The only prob;em was there was no way I could drag her 60 yards down the beach to my gear.  I go to grab my phone to take a pic and... No Phone!?!?  OMG... Iget her in a safe place and run back to grab the tape and find my phone.  No phone anywhere and I could hear her slapping the sand all the way down the beach, so I grabbed my crappy camera and decided to deal with the lost phone after I released her.

70"!

I tried for a few shots, but she didn't cooperate after dragging her up to the dry stuff.  All I got was shake and bake! My camera sucks balls and it takes like a minute for the stupid picture to come out.  I got 3 snowy pics and this was the best I could get.  I just need to dump my Optio as it 10 year old technology that seems like 20 year old stuff.  Good day shots, but horrible night shots.

I have to give Steve an 1/8th credit since it was on his bait.   



I had a little trouble reviving her, but she got her breath and I got a set of no waves which made it easy to see her swim off and I knew she was all right. SUCCESS!

I then resumed looking for my phone.  I walked up and down the beach following my footsteps and FINALLY found it in the sand.  It was right where I backed up at the hookset.  Go figure, but at least I got it!  No water, but a butt load of sand that I have to clean out.

It's now 1:30 and I text Steve that I'm calling it quits.  I then hear a girl scream over the surf noise?  I have to admit, I got a little nervous as I heard her scream a few more times over the wave noise and kind of froze what to do.  There was no way in hell I could leave in case something bad was happening, but It was pretty much a scary ass feeling.  I grabbed my bait knife and started to head to where I was hearing her scream.  I heard her a few more times, but it was lower this time... then I stopped because I heard her yell "YES, YES, YES!"... Holy f@ck.....  some dude is porking his girl on the beach and she's a screamer.  LOL. 
I have to admit, I felt much better knowing it was that, then me having to stick some dude with a nasty bait knife. 

Well, it was a CRAZY night out there and lots of "stuff" went down from meeting Rob, to the lost possible Tax Man,  to the tagged 7-gill,  to the redemption Soup, to the Screaming sex girl..  I got home almost at 2:30 and couldn't even sleep since my brain wouldn't turn off, but got 4 hours in.  I have the day off from work, so it's no big deal, but I'm sure Squatch is a walking zombie right about now.

Thanks for following along with the crazy evening and taking time to read the novel that I had to share.  LOL

[xjchad]

What a crazy night! Can't believe that thing chomped through your leader!
Looks like it's time to upgrade 
"I use 135# 7 strand and never had a failure for what we are targeting.  It's pretty inexpensive and very durable, although I'm not sure how well it would hold up if the tax man showed up." -Your post on Joe's thread.
The man in the grey suit must be reading your posts...

BTW, great read!

[sasquatch]

Lots of ups and downs last night. Glad I showed up. I'll post up on the tag when I get a chance to look at it.

I wish I had four hours sleep.

[xjchad]

Lots of ups and downs last night. Glad I showed up. I'll post up on the tag when I get a chance to look at it.

I wish I had four hours sleep.

So if you catch a tagged shark, you're supposed to remove the tag?  Not that I ever will, but you never know...

[sasquatch]

Lots of ups and downs last night. Glad I showed up. I'll post up on the tag when I get a chance to look at it.

I wish I had four hours sleep.

So if you catch a tagged shark, you're supposed to remove the tag?  Not that I ever will, but you never know...

I left the first one I caught. The thing is, you can't read the info because of the algae so if you want to report you need to remove it.

So far I have received no rewards for my leopards. The study was out of prizes. Now I look at the tag as my prize b

[SevengillTheVC]

It could've been a world record 7 too Tom! Or maybe a shallow water cruising 6 gill! LOL! Another nice night, good job boys!

[Pinoyfisher]

Damn, what a night guys!!! I can't believe I was just there fishing solo a few nights ago and now you guys are scoring! I chummed it up for you guys. I guess I'm gonna have to rig up the Baja Special just in case I run into your shoulda, coulda, and woulda one night. You're having one hell of a 2016 fishing season!

[1morecast]

Impressive in so many ways. Your hardcore! 

[skrilla]

Sorry, we'll keep it down next time.

[Eric H]

Excellent write up and great read.

That is one heck of a night.

Can you follow up with the tag to see where it was tagged?  It would be interesting to see if it had come a long ways to SD. Maybe they have some additional info about it as well?

Based on your description of the fight of the one that got away and the fact you got bit off, there's no dout in my mind you had something special there.

I don't have experience with GW's or hammers, just some knowledge I've gained through reading. My guess is that you had either of the two as well. I am leaning towards a juvie hammer though. Those are some scrappy sharks and run really fast. The guys that fish for them use some heavy ass wire and still get bit off at times. I see a GW being more of a lazy ass like 7s though they are capable of reaching those high speed runs. Hammers have also come right up to the shore here in CA like gw's.

Do you see yourself bumping up your wire? As you know those hook ups are far in between but it could easily happen again.

[vdisney]

This read had me sitting on the edge of my seat, frick'n awesome job Tom.  Super bummer about the bite off, you guys have more than paid your dues.  Kudos for being a stand up guy and walking into the dark looking for the source of the "scream", much respect my brother 

[LONGCAST JOE]

What a crazy night! Can't believe that thing chomped through your leader!
Looks like it's time to upgrade 
"I use 135# 7 strand and never had a failure for what we are targeting.  It's pretty inexpensive and very durable, although I'm not sure how well it would hold up if the tax man showed up." -Your post on Joe's thread.

My immediate thought as well when I read that part too Chad...

Crazy session,Great post, left me speechless...
JOE

[faster u fool]

report of the year.  drop the mic.

[HalibutJoel99]

Wow, Tom! It was an excellent read and I enjoyed it. Good job Steve on getting another tagged Shark, must feel good getting a tagged species. Great report and nice Sharks again!

[SurffishingSean]

That is the lne youve been longing for! by the fight it  sounded huge!!! thanks for the Novel!