It was quite the “Welcome Back to Tuesday Night Sharking” trip. Met Squatch at sunset to some gorgeous conditions. Lots of kids in the water, but they thinned out pretty good the further the sun sunk out.
Within 5 minutes of casting a spider webbed sardine out, Squatch’s rod gets walloped! It didn’t stick, but that was a pretty damn good sign. About 5 more minutes after that and he’s bendo! I thought it was a Leopard at first, but then Steve yelled “Nope, it’s the right kind!”… and it WAS! Steve’s shark was swimming right for the kids and it could have gotten ugle, but he managed to get it away from them and I got a good tail grab. My wrist is a little beat up from not tail grabbing a twisting soupie in a long time.
Measured her out to 74”!! (Incoming/Sardine/2-3’surf)
We got some great pics with her and off she went. There were a lot of buzzing kids at this point.
5 minutes later and my rod doubles over! Holy crap, what is going on!?!?! I fought it and it started grey hounding a doing some tail walking. It kept turning to bulrush me, and it was clearly a nice soupie. I got it to the inside break, and it did a half body breach while shaking it’s head and threw the hook. Ugh… No matter, 2 sharks hooked up within the first half hour was awesome!
I then get another hard screaming take down and then it rushes the beach again! Once again, the hook pulls as I get it closer to shore and now I’m 0/2. We thought it might be the 10/0 Gamakatsu Big River hook, but that baby was sharp and I think I just had bad luck on where the hook was setting in the jaw. I told Steve that one more strike and I go back to the Chinese hooks.
At this point we both had fish hit the baits again a few times, but never got the hook set in. Finally, I see a small bump on the rod tip and put the rod in my hand just as it started to scream out. My shoulders and back were holding up fine, but I slightly tweaked my right butt cheek muscle somehow…. Which made the fight seem a little weird. Squatch finally got his paws on it and my first surf shark since last November, 68” female on the mackerel chunk! I was a happy guy!
The new fishing necklace seemed to be working..
Steve then had a screamer that I thought ripped the rod out of the holder! Holy crap did that thing hit hard! He fought it until it was more than half-way in and it suddenly charged the beach and spit the hook…. Ugh…. This has been some non-stop action from the moment we arrived.
Lots of tail-walking and jumpers as they seemed well versed on how to throw a hook.
We had a few more takedowns before the next fish decided to stay on the hook. It was pretty wrapped in the line and pretty heavy. Steve hot a hold of her and #2 for me tonight!
73” Female on the mackerel chunk.
Both Steve and I were batting .500 not counting all of the missed bites, but rather the ones we fought and lost. Steve then gets hammered again, but it quickly spits the hook. Not sure if he has any more bait, he gives it the 5-minute rule. Well, it must have left some skin or something since another critter came by and sucked down his hook.
First eel of the season!
I then go to check my line and see it all limp. I start reeling in as fast as I could, but nothing. Apparently it was swimming around with my bait, and somehow busted off my sinker, but my expansive ass hook was there.
The bite slowed down a bit and we threw on our last bait. In less than 3 hours, we landed 3 nice soupies and fought/lost 3 more. We also had about a dozen other real shark bites that never stuck by the time we got to the rods.
We called it the evening pretty happy and stoked for our return to the sand. I’m not sure, but the new Fishing necklace I twisted up might have a little good mojo in it.
Thanks Squatch for starting the thread. I found typing up the report while I was on the meeting call to be beneficial for multi-tasking!
