So I'm on Day 6 of having a really bad cold and have a busy Tuesday in store. Drop the boat off for it's annual tune-up, head to work for 10 hour day, then meet up with Steve up at our SSK Spot. This made for a Long ass day.
Traffic was still bad, but I made it up to the spot Squatch picked out by 7:45 and was fishing by 8:00. I was only expecting to fish for two hours, so had to make the most of it. Steve was already fishing, but only on his first bait since he enjoyed some downtime for c*cktails before heading down.
Conditions were good, but tough if we were to land anything. Some salad... big sets at time coming in... About 15 minutes into the soak and I get slammed, only to have it drop it. I put a new bait out and get hit again. This time fish on! I fought him for a while and when I was about half way in, it rolled and tail slapped my line to freedom.
So bummed, but happy to see my leader looked like this, so I know it was a toothy critter for sure! (That's my steel leader coating stripped off from the shark teeth)
About 15 minutes later and I hook up with another one! This one was staying low and not tail slapping at all, so I was pretty sure it was a soupie and it was kicking my ass. I finally got it to shore and Steve got a hold of it. It was way bigger that what I thought it was and when we threw the tape on her, we had to check again since it said 77".... Wow. She was a fat Bee-atch!
Pictures were hard to come by since my new phone takes sh!tty night pics and I left my camera in the lobster bag at home. Super healthy Soupie and on the board!
Not long after and Squatch gets the right type of bounce! You could tell it was a Sevengill and a big girl to boot! He worked her back and forth across 100 yards of the beach before finally getting her close enough for me to tail grab. BOOYAH! BIG Boy! 93" and Extra Fat for the length! Tough to wrangle these things up on the beach with the bigger sets coming in.
It's only 9:15 by this time and not too shabby to both have a beautiful shark on the sand by now! I then get another big take down and hook up. After a short fight, it pops the hook out and I immediately reel in and put a fresh bait out.
Not long after and the rod makes a funny, but familiar bounce. I set the hook and think I'm on a wad of kelp.... all of a sudden, the wad starts swimming! This was a massive one compared to what I've been catching and had the longest fight of them all. I kept pace and spent some time making sure I didn't do anything rash to lose it as it was take 20 yards, lose 30 yards almost the entire time. I ran up and down the beach with it to make sure I didn't have too much line out across the sand and to make sure I had the right angles to the fight.
Finally get it to the beach and Squatch goes in after it. He's on it's tail when my line tightens up and goes *POP*! The shark slips out of Steve's hand and swims back to sea with my rig and all. Not sure what happened, but that was one I was ready to get hands on to look at. So deflating from going from a huge high to the bottom in the matter of a split second.
I go back to rig up and Squatch is immediately on as he left his rod in the holder the entire time. It was a smaller Sevengill comparatively to what we've been hooking these last few months, but still a Sevengill at a respectable 75" female!
It spit up a Jack Mackerel after twisting Squatch's line around his neck. Nuts.
By now it was 10:10 and past our time we like staying since we both get up at 4:00am to go to work. I had one bait out and was deciding to try another bait or just make this the last bait out. Then I get the "Wobble Rod" and know a Sevengill is on. I set the hook and another battle ensued. Steve was still resting from chasing my shark and immediately catching one after the loss of mine.
It was another nice fight and a big fat one finally appeared 20 minutes later. Steve got his mitts on it and wer both grabbed the tail and drug it out of the sea.
The tape was rolled out and it turned out to be a FAT 101" male!
Man... I was even thinking about putting another bait out, but Steve said he's done and I was whooped myself. It's hard just leaving them biting, but it was the right thing to do since it took forever for me to fall asleep when I got home. Literally 2 hours of sleep and I'm back up getting ready for work. Ugh, but it feels so much better waking up to know we had fish on the beach with little sleep, than to be skunked with little sleep!
Well, I pick up my boat today and hope to get to put it to good use here soon.
Until then, I'll see you at next high tide!
77 Soup, 93 7, 75 7, 101 7
All mack
Incoming
Full Moon
