Great White and the Curmudgeon (7/24)

[Latimeria]

Water temps dropped a ton from last week and I took the boat out looking to see what I could find willing to bite.  It was much harder to get into a mackerel bite and there were no small bonito to be found.  It took some time, but I got a mixed bag of Salema and perfect sized macks for bait.



I started throwing the plastic first to just sample some areas and got into a steady bass bite of all legal calicos.



I made a few moves and soaked some baits for a mixed result of bass so I saved the remaining bait and started throwing everything in the tackle box.



All of a sudden, my plastic gets slammed and I can't stop what was on the other end of the line.  I used the boat to chase it down and intersect it a few times before i saw it was a big ass thresher shark!  Ugh, way too big for my bass rod, but I kept trying until my line gave out and it swam off. 
I put out a live bait and had another thresher slap it with it's tail and only had it hooked for a really short time before pulling the hook.  Small circle hooks don't really do well in shark mouths.

I was slow trolling a little more when i thought I noticed a seal behind my bait so started to reel uin faster to try and save the few remaining baits I had left.  The sea lion never came back up so I turned the boat to see if it was another thresher and BAM!  Scared the living sh!t out of me!  Swimming right next to the boat was a 7'-8'great white shark!  Crazy!  First one I've seen up close in any of my boats.  I dropped the mackerel down in front of it (who wouldn't?) and it made a 90 degree angle and bolted like lightning!  I'm not sure what spooked it, but it startled me!  I went looking for it again, but no dice.

At this point the wind started kicking up so I made a move closer to home.  Bass were going off and in breeding colors!



I also dropped my last half dozen baits down and got 4 legal lingcod.  Well, one was a sportsman's release.  Two otheres were right at 22-22.5 inches and I didn't want to rish it shrinking on the way home.



And I got a 24" one that was plenty legal enough to bring back for a fresh fish fry lunch today.





That was it.  I ran out of baits and headed back to the barn.  Fun day and I'm still jazzed to see the real Tax Man next to the curmudgeon!  What an impressive animal especially the size of it's head and gills!  It almost look surreal!

Thanks for reading!

[sasquatch]

I have a love hate relationship with the on the water reports while I'm at work.

[Greenshark]

Sounds like a fun morning on the water!

[skrilla]

Thanks for the heads up. Guess I'll keep my feet out of the water tomorrow. 

[BenCantrell]

Thanks for the heads up. Guess I'll keep my feet out of the water tomorrow. 

Haha agreed. That's crazy Tom!

[vdisney]

Sounds like a exciting trip Tom...........awesome

[1morecast]

The news is reporting a lots of juvenile white sharks off of north county beaches. I don't have the gear for a legit shot but it's fun to think "what if".