A Tail of two Threshers....

[Holy Mackerel]

It was my first day fishing of the New Year. I had caught a yellowtail the week before, and was out
for another forkie. We had a good current that morning, and I had met up with
Brad Messmer, and Andy Allen. We discussed the fishing conditions, and as is the luxury of kayaks,
we all went our separate ways. Bait puttered all around, which sent us on a few “run and gun” chasing missions.



Over the VHF, Brad hailed that he had hooked into something toothy, as his bait was mauled,
but it had come unbuttoned. I had continued to yoyo in the vicinity, and heard over the VHF,
Corey Wyrick had a newbie friend named Tom with him, who had hooked up on
something big on his first cast of his first kayak fishing trip ever. After some time, they were
certain it was Thresher shark, affectionately known as Mr. T. Time had passed, while working the
yoyo, when I saw Tom, with Corey, and Kurt following him out. It was still early in the morning,
and I could have fished more, but the opportunity to see a Thresher caught off a kayak outweighed
yoyo fishing. I had never seen a thresher landed on a kayak, and was excited to join the group
following Tom during his fight, which later would be renamed the flotilla. The fish towed Tom, who
could only laugh at his first catch, about 3 miles off Punta La Jolla. The water had gone from
green to blue, and we could now clearly see Pt. Loma in about 200 ft of water. Many of us rarely
fished that deep aside from a few rock fish spots, but certainly not that far off the point, even when
the current is ripping downhill.



Tom fought this fish valiantly for two hours, when the beast finally came to color, exhausted he inched
it up to the boat. Corey grabbed the tail, but its detainment was short lived, as it broke free
from his grasp and went on another long run. Tom understandably exhausted from this battle,
handed off the rod to Corey who now began to try and pump up the fish. At this point, the flotilla
had grown to me, Tom, Corey, Casey, Brinkman, Tyler, Patrick, and Kurt. This fish seemed
to tow Corey in circles, as he tried to wind it up on #40 Trilene Big Game line, which lived up to its
name. The fish was slowly inched up, a little more than an hour later, we had color again. Moments later,
the tail was once more in Corey’s grasp, but this time, it wasn’t getting away, as the rope noose
was now in place, and although the fish thrashed in an attempt to escape, it couldn’t break free.



Cheers of excitement from the floatilla ensued, and the fish was cut to bleed, and die. An offshore
wind had picked up at this time, and Corey made an attempt to pull the fish up on deck, but it still
had more fight in it writhing to break away. Kurt who made his best Goodfella’s impersonation,
stabbed the fish once more in the gills, causing the fish to gasp its last breath. With some coordinated
effort, the shark was heaved onto on Brinkman’s kayak.



Unfortunately, the weight of the fish began to fill the hull of his kayak with water, so it was once more
transferred back to Corey’s Malibu Extreme. It was able to handle the weight, but the brutal offshore
wind had picked up, and they had a paddle into shore with choppy water, and wind in their face.



After a long paddle, they finally made it in, only to form a crowd on the beach from onlookers.



They took the fish in to Fisherman’s landing, where it weighed 150 lbs; incidentally it was caught
on a Salas 6x jr iron on the first drop, of the first trip, of a newbie kayak fisherman.

Click Here for Video of the fight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8ABLGu1ppw

A few weeks later in an undisclosed location....



I had wanted a Thresher shark off my kayak for about 3 years now, as I found it something of a big
challenge, not to mention excellent table fare. I had never really tried for one, mainly because I didn’t
know much about fishing for Threshers, and more importantly landing them. One thing I learned
from Tom’s shark was that it is good to have support with you, because after seeing what may have
gone wrong, it made me realize that I would not want to do this on my own. A few weeks after
Tom caught his thresher, I had seen fishing reports, some less visible than others, but nonetheless
a paucity of thresher still continued to bite. I had even gone out the next week from Tom’s catch alone
on my Tandem with a big Rapala on a stand up rod with 4/0 Penn reel spooled with #80 mono to
no avail. Below a picture of my tandem, with a noose, a buoy, and of course, a jig stick, just in case.



But this day, I had continued my search on my faster kayak for another yellowtail working the yoyo
in the usual “spots,” as they have become known for other anglers who have hooked up on certain
GPS marks, shared amongst a close network of friends. I was chucking the Iron, for me a boring
way to fish, but highly effective for homeguard winter yellowtail. I was also soaking a live pacific
mackerel on a 2/0 hook on a 4oz of lead on a slider, hey you never know, might as well have
bait out while you YOYO.



It was a seemingly slow grey morning, with spots of sunshine, and as far as the action was concerned,
a couple of “run and gun” on bait fish being pushed up, with no results. I decided I would stop and
work my Iron while I paddled in just off Punta La Jolla. I had fished near, and around
Brad Messmer, and Pat Holmes, whom also reported slow morning with spots of bait. Just as
I started thinking “I wonder what happened to those threshers” no really I did think that… my bait,
which was partially in gear, gets smoked!! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!!!!!!
I pick up my rod point is at my bow, which turns me, and fish on! It felt like the right kind, fast strong runs
straight down, bouncing rod tip, I was stoked. Brad and Pat who were still nearby heard the roar of my
clicker, paddled up to join me. I felt like I was gaining most of my spectra back, and even to the point,
where I got my gaff ready. But then a longer run, which was no longer vertical, and according to my GPS,
we were traveling about 2 knots into the wind. We determined at this point, I had hooked into a thresher shark.



This fish made strong runs, and to rest, I used my wading boot to hold up my rod tip, like one would
use a rail on a boat. I seemed to gain line back, but the fish would take striking runs, only to burn
all the line I would gain, then just dog down. I was running #65 spectra to a #40 Seaguar fluoro
leader, incidentally, a set up which I hadn’t changed in a while, and had been on that rod for weeks.
In fact there was noticeable rust on the hook, and for storage I wrapped the leader around my
reel handle, causing a visible kink in the line. This kink in the line, along with my “suspect” knots
would haunt me the entire fight. Two hours had passed, and we were towed to nearly the same
area as Tom’s fish weeks earlier, 200ft of water, three miles off the point, only to see Pt. Loma,
and to some extent downtown San Diego.



I fought this fish with no color at all for about 2 hours, when we got our first glimpse of this fish, to
which Pat who had the best look, estimated over 100 lbs. Once more the fish took one Violent run, my
Daiwa Sealine reel had already been buttoned down to the maximum, short of breaking my fluoro
leader. I was fatigued at this point, but had entered a fight, and like my hockey days, I wasn’t gonna
lose, so I put more pressure on this fish, as it appeared to just dog me on the bottom, in fact, none of us,
could read it on our sonar’s. I started to short pump it up, only to gain 5 inches at time, then lose 3
inches, with the now present nagging onshore wind pushing me further from where my fish seemed
to dog me. Brad reminded me to not thumb my spool, a bad habit, I find hard to break. We began
to assess the situation, and came to the conclusion that perhaps this fish had drowned, or was severely fatigued.



We were nearing 3 hours, when I was at what seemed a stale mate with the shark. I appeared to be
making little progress, when I decided to tighten down the last bit of my drag, and inched the fish up
for 45 minutes. The fish had to be dead, or exhausted beyond limits, and with the onshore wind, I drug
it along the sandy bottom until I could get on top of it. Once I freed it from the sand I noticed it
came up a foot at a time, and what seemed like an eternity it finally was in full color, when Pat yelled,
“it buried its nose in the ground!” Its face was covered in sand, when I grabbed its tail, and secured
the noose. With the help of Brad grabbing its long tail, I grabbed its pectoral fin, stuck a flying
gaff in its head, and heaved it on my kayak. We were stoked, and astonished to find that my
knots and leader held against the weight of the shark dragging on the sand and against the wind.



I was glad to have Pat, and Brad there to help me, because with all my gear, and the shark, my kayak
was pushed to the limits. Pat generously offered to paddle in my fish on his Malibu Xfactor, which has
a higher payload. On the way in, we saw three grey whales about 75 yards away come up and loudly
spray at least 10ft in the air, and we agreed how lucky we were to have this fishery. The onshore wind
swiftly pushed us into the launch at the end of Avenida de la playa, where we landed with minimal surf.
A crowd had gathered on the beach around the Thresher shark, the same as a couple weeks prior. I had
to field questions from tourists, who otherwise may not have understood my answers to the technicalities
of landing such a fish, but they were happy to see such a feat on a kayak and snap pictures.



Later Brad and I weighed the fish on two scales, estimates ranged from 115 to 130, but probably closer
to 120lbs. I was stoked, my goal had been to catch a Thresher shark over 100lbs and I did it.
Now, where are those 100+ Mako’s……

Chris