The sight gave us chills and goosebumps. We were several miles off the Channels Islands and had been drifting casually with a slow current and light breeze, metering out a judicious amount of chum while soaking live mackerels and chunks of fish.
Suddenly one of the guys sitting on the gunwale jumped up, hollered and pointed down into the water. We all looked over the side and watched the ominous shape of a large phantom glide gracefully under the boat. I saw enough of it to recognize it as a mako shark — and a big one at that.
We didn’t wait long. One of our heavy reels, a Penn International spooled with 80-pound line and a coated steel leader double-sleeved to a 9/0 hook, and mounted on a stout Cousins rod, zipped loudly but briefly. One guy picked it up out of the rod holder and looked to me for advice. I motioned for him to wait.
The rod tip bounced a couple of times as the shark got a better purchase on the bait and then the reel screamed as that phantom raced off. “Now!” I said. The angler spun the drag down, started reeling and set the hook hard enough to drive it through tough leather.
I always drift with the reel in gear, the clicker on and the drag backed off completely. This prevents a backlash, which occasionally occurs when a shark or other big game fish hits hard on the run, with the reel out of gear and only the clicker to slow the spool. To set the hook and fight the fish, we spin down the drag and then adjust it after the hookup. We set the clicker off when it becomes a nuisance.
We had a pretty big shark hooked up. I helped the angler make the shark work hard by coaching him to lift the rod and make the shark bend it. We watched in awe as the shark launched itself out of the water like an ICBM blasting out of a missile silo. Then it made a couple of prolonged runs that took better than half the line off the spool.
With no sign of that shark tiring, I fired up the engine and moved toward the shark while the angler reeled fast to keep the line taught. I kept the boat positioned so the stern was to the shark and the angler had the best angle.
After an hour, the battle still was not decided. The shark came near the boat twice, but it wasn’t tired enough nor close enough to think about touching the leader. After a third pass, the shark made a couple of rapid reversals and wrapped the leader around a fin. Now the mono line was against the shark’s rough skin back by the tail and the line parted before the brute could be brought to leader.
It’s a heartbreaker, but when dealing with large prime predators, it just doesn’t always go smoothly. We were going to release that big shark anyway, but we couldn’t honorably pronounce it caught because we hadn’t quite brought it to leader. No worries, another opportunity would swim by.
— Capt. David Bacon operates WaveWalker Charters and is president of SOFTIN Inc., a nonprofit organization providing seafaring opportunities for those in need. Visit softininc.blogspot.com to learn more about the organization and how you can help. Click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.
