squid jig..bycatch...

[Honcho]

Launched LJ yesterday with high hopes of catching something big...after a late start, (hanging out with FishNinjaY and watching the awesome fireworks). Was on the water about 9 am with my son and I on the yellow Hobie tandem. The surf was about 1-2ft, and the water was nice. Took off and peddled through the surf as if we were professionals (4th time out)...since we launched late we decided to make bait (squid) and go after some rock fish.
I read on the BWE about using a jig instead of lead weight on a sabiki and you might catch something other than bait...I put it to use on a squid ganion. On our last drop, I drop the squid ganion with a black and white tady down and I start to yo-yo couple of times and I start to wind. As I am winding, suddenly I get pulled down, I yank and its a tug a war - I am thinking at this time it must be a tail - as I am pulling, I see out of the corner of my eye something starts to break surface..the next moment happened incredibly fast! All of the sudden I see a tail, couple of fins and then a thresher shark's face/mouth and shaking violently and is visibly pissed off! It was the length of my yak (12~14ft), I stopped breathing and pulled a little too hard and bam! broke the line..My son who was sitting in the front, saw the whole thing and turned back and said in a calm voice, 'dad, that was a shark, that was cool.' I think I charred a little and took off....called it a day...

Other than that, it was slow and a ton of bait to be found. No rock fish or anything otherwise, we did manage a halibut but it was short...will be back at it again next week.