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It was a
clear, but chilly morning as we ran 18 miles off the shore of Marina Del Rey,
CA. I, Jeffrey Inmon, was at the helm of my 21ft Caravelle. My wife,
Bridgett held on to our Pomeranian puppy as we cut through the high seas.
Scott scanned the horizon for signs of life, but the conditions were not
very promising. As we settled into an area of birds and bait, we set up our
chum slick using New Fishall Chum. We proceeded to prepare our gear in
hopes of action. We cast two lines into the water (Penn 655HRS rods, Penn
International 30TW reels, loaded with 80lbs Izorline, and a 15ft 250lb wire
leaders attached to 10/0 hooks). There was no frozen bait at the West
Marine Tackle shop, so we purchased frozen Tilapia at the local market.
With Tilapia’s cut in half, we tossed our lines into the deep blue sea. We
ate breakfast, talked and laughed hoping for warmer weather. After about an
hour of drifting, a large shadow appeared about 50 yards off the stern of
our Caravelle. After closer observation, the shadow we discovered was a
shark. Which was aggressively zigzagging its way towards our boat. She then
ferociously attacked our sea anchor. The anchor was still in the shark’s
mouth when she started to charge our swim platform. Only moments later,
still thrashing around, she disappeared, after hitting our 150 Yamaha
Outboard. The boat lurched as the shark, which was entangled in our sea
anchor, tried to free itself. Suddenly, the straps on the anchor broke, the
giant beast shot directly out of the water and did a complete back flip 10ft
in the air, only a few feet from the boat. The three of us stood in fear
and awe as the shark landed back in the water. After a few minutes of
circling our boat, the shark began to eat our bait. Scott grabbed the rod
and set the hook hard, causing the beast again to leap in the air only a few
feet from the boat. This time when the shark it the water it made it’s way
into the open sea. The battle had begun. |
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I took the
rod from Scott, and began to chase the shark with the boat, before it took
all of our line. Nine times we tried to catch this large beast. Finally,
Scott decided to put a flying gaff into her after chasing her for an hour
and a half. The shark was starting to tire as we put her ahead of us and
stuck her with the gaff boat. We were drenched by the large amount of water
put into the boat by the thrashing she was doing. We thought she had given
up, but she continued pulling the boat another 200 to 300 feet. She finally
slowed again and we were able to shoot her again with the gaff. We knew she
was leaving large gashes on the starboard side and stern of the boat. We
realized the battle was won, when we finally had her roped to the side of
the boat.
We never
knew how large the animal was until we made it to port and it took twelve
men to pull her in and take her to the weight station. After 3 hours of
filleting our 750 lb. trophy catch we realized we had been part of a truly
incredible experience, which none of us will ever forget.
EQUIPMENT:
Caravelle 210 Walk Around - 150
Yamaha HDPI -Penn Sabre 655xhrs rods -Izorline 80lb monofilament - Arearule
Engineering 10/0 hook - 250lb 15ft wire learder - New Fishall Chum buckets
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