Big Bigger Biggest

[CalicoCody]

Originally Posted by Fiskadoro

Hell I'm no expert just opinionated

Actually your preaching to the choir..... No doubt the jury is still out, and nothing is definitive.

Like Kieth I've been interested in these sharks for decades, read a lot about them, and put a lot of time in on the water, but I've not heard anything all that concrete. I think the first estimates were based on two rings a year, then they went to one. Used to be people were estimating something like twenty years, then last I heard they kicked it up to thirty, but I'm not a biologist just someone who's interested in fish, and I'm just throwing out my opinion based on what I've read in the past.

If I had to personally guess I'd go with 30 to 40 years but the highest estimates I've read were only thirty.

Reproduction wise. I used to think they pupped every year, then some studies on Whites showed that they probably carried their young longer and took time off between pregnancies. That was a while back and they based it on migration patterns and sat tags. I.E. the Great White females varied their migrations in cycles and went to specific areas when carrying pups and after they dropped them. Since they changed their migration pattern the next year, the theory was that they skipped years in their reproductive cycles. Later I read somewhere that Makos might have a similar cycle even though their migrations are not the same. Makos and Salmon sharks are biologically closer to whites then most sharks so it kinda makes sense. I'm not sure where I read it, but it stuck with me since it challenged my preconceptions.

Speaking of preconceptions where do you think they pup? I've heard they probably have a reduced feeding response around the time they give birth to keep them from eating their young. Since Big females can be caught local, I always thought they probably pupped elsewhere in Mexican waters then swam up here afterwards.

Then I caught this.




That's a 22 inch female mako that I caught trolling off the West end of Catalina. It probably only weighed three pounds max and still had part of it's umbilical attached from it's egg sac. That shark attacked a skirted Bonita trolled on the downrigger. The bait was as big as it was but it still manged to rip off it's back end and put a 9/0 hook right through it's gills.

The guy I was fishing with and I have a running joke about that shark. We may of not caught biggest local Mako but we probably got the smallest, at least for one that hit a bait and was outside it's mother. I figure it had to be fresh pupped so the question in my mind is if the females loose their desire to feed when they are in they are in there pupping grounds, then why do we still catch full sized adults here like the 1300 pound fish that I started the thread with.

I'd say a on again off again breeding cycle like the whites have might explain that, but of course that's just a guess, and can't back it up with hard data.

Fortunately I'm just an amateur so I don't have to

You know how it is, fishing always involves a lot of guess work especially for us non-scientists.

Good to hear Matt got you some of the spinal cartilage, I was hoping you guys got it. I'd be really interested to know how many rings they find. It's my understanding is they do not stop growing as they age, so no matter how old that shark is in years just it's size suggests it's one of the oldest makos ever caught, and likely maxed out in life expectancy.

Jim

..... BABY KILLER!

[Nic D]

screw that guy for killing that seal eating machine for fame. I have no respect for loser. Harvesting anything for food is fine by me, even calico's....

but to kill just to kill... lame

-Nic

[driftwood]

Originally Posted by Tamarack Studios

screw that guy for killing that seal eating machine for fame. I have no respect for loser. Harvesting anything for food is fine by me, even calico's....

but to kill just to kill... lame

-Nic

X2 Nic!!!!

[ful-rac]

Jim you pull that thing out when the super models come over?

It looks like you can throw it away now.....


what other dried mummified specimens do you have locked up in that garage of yours?

[Fiskadoro]

Originally Posted by ful-rac

Jim you pull that thing out when the super models come over?

I always pull it out when super models come over!!!! The chicks dig it

[wiredantz]

Originally Posted by ful-rac

Jim you pull that thing out when the super models come over?

It looks like you can throw it away now.....


what other dried mummified specimens do you have locked up in that garage of yours?

I don't know what kind of sick games you play tony, and i do not want to ask why you have Matt aka as (stinkymatt) tied in duck tape.


BTW: i think he likes it

[Fiskadoro]

Originally Posted by wiredantz

I don't know what kind of sick games you play

[lowprofile]

big mako for sure. that would be one helluva fight from shore.

I'm not so sure about them being as vicious as you portray. the largest i've seen caught from shore was about 10'6" and the bait was dropped in 20ft of water (350yards from shore). right around the beginning of spring break and there were no sharks attacks in the area, even with 8 mako's over 9ft landed from the beach. about half a dozen spotted each month through spring by the kayakers and again, no attacks.

I've said it before, that i don't keep big fish, just what i want to eat. But if i did get a grander, it would probably be drug up the beach and carted home.

[dos ballenas]

[Fiskadoro]

Originally Posted by lowprofile

....the largest i've seen caught from shore was about 10'6" and the bait was dropped in 20ft of water (350yards from shore). right around the beginning of spring break and there were no sharks attacks in the area, even with 8 mako's over 9ft landed from the beach.

Too Cool!!!

I'm sure I've told you that I grew up fishing sharks from shore in the Gulf. I started fishing them in the early seventies with senators and dacron. What I probably never told you though is that we never caught any Makos at all, I never even saw one till I came out here.

We caught Tigers, Bulls, scalloped and Greater Hammerheads, Lemons, Blacktips all the Coastal species both large and small but we never got Shortfin Mako's.

The only Makos I heard about were all caught well offshore usually a hundred miles or more. They didn't even come into the rigs back then.

The first one I heard of caught in the surf was taken in the late 90s and when I was told about it my first reaction was that had to be total bullshit story. Now I'm starting to think that possibly so many of the large coastal sharks were commercially overfished that it left essentially an opening for more Makos to move in and take advantage of inshore feeding grounds closer to shore.

What's interesting also is the time of year. You're talking about catching them in March? When I fished the Gulf we mainly caught large sharks between May and October but Tigers, Hammers and the really big ones never showed up until water cleared up and got warmer in June. What was the water temp when you caught those Makos? Sounds like they are coming through before the water warms up.

Though the same species your Florida Makos and our California Makos probably have some pretty different habits due to what they feed on. We have large numbers of seals you don't so your larger Makos are most likely feeding almost exclusively on fish. The Islands here are surrounded by deep water, yours are in shallows and surrounded by reefs. There is also a greater diversity of fish inshore in the gulf which is why it's traditionally had a huge coastal shark population of large sharks that we just do not have out here. So your dealing with pretty different conditions, and maybe a different behavior set in response to them.

I'd love to catch a big Mako in the surf, but I wouldn't want to swim around one. Tigers used to scare the shit out me when I saw them shallow, but I'd pretty scared to be swimming around larger makos as well. At least Tigers move pretty slow compared to Makos... ha ha

Greats stuff I envy you.