DP Thresher

[Vikingj]

After a slow 2 hrs at the pipe Mihiel, Yani, and I decided to troll from the barber poles to the headlands to see if the Threshers wanted to play. When I neared the red buoy there was a SMACK! and the line began to sing that most lovely tune -zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz . I have fought and CR’ed T-sharks on several occasions and think they are the most beautiful and graceful creatures. Their erratic runs out, back, and downward keeps you busy and their aerial acrobatics are spectacular. Right away this run didn’t feel right and I wasn’t sure it was a T until I brought it to color after 25 min. and saw it was tail hooked on my rapala. I decided to take this girl home but could see it would take some help. Yani jumped in to take my other rod and cleared the tangled line from my loaded rod holding the shark. Mihiel played “kayak cowboy” and lassoed the tail, wrestled the shark and removed the lure while I secured my rod, cleared the deck, and tried to get control of my adrenalin charged “sewing machine” leg. After watching my buddies do all the hard work, I cut under the base of the tail to reach the vein & artery that lay on the inside of the backbone. Mihiel, the veterinarian, made his diagnosis and confirmed that the wound was fatal. The fish was too big and heavy to get inside the yak and I couldn’t reach the head so I started dragging it home backwards. It took me almost 2hrs to get back where Ms. T measured 8ft 2in and had an estimated weight of 80+lbs. This is the first and the last T-shark I intend to take and now I can check it off on my bucket list.
I’ve learned an important lesson from almost every fishing trip. The lesson I learned here is that catching a T shark takes team work and I was lucky enough to have a great team working for me! Thanks Mihiel & Yani.
PS- Boy, I really slept good last night!
Wayne