Mako are macho sharks
814-pounder proves to be quite a challenge

By Mike Blackwell, blackwell@insidevc.com
July 24, 2003

Mako. Even its name sounds exotic, powerful.

Mako, which comes from a Maori word in New Zealand, commands respect, perhaps even awe. It's a sleek, beautiful creature designed perfectly for the kill. It swims at the top of the food chain virtually unchallenged.

It's big enough and fierce enough to attack swordfish large enough to sink a small boat. Mako have been known to attack man.

Mako are macho creatures, basking in the lore of such famous outdoorsmen and authors Zane Grey and Ernest Hemingway.

OK, you've got the picture. Adult mako are big, tough hombres and catching them is no small chore. But that's what Mike Cromer, skipper of the 75-foot After Midnight sportfishing boat, and about 20 other boats set out to do last weekend in the Pacific Corinthian Yacht Club's mako shark tournament.

They sailed past Anacapa Island and fished near the deep water adjacent Anacapa and Santa Cruz Island. It's a known mako hangout. Cromer came loaded with plenty of ground albacore to use for chum.

Shark fishing can be a waiting game. First, you put chum in the water and let the current carry its smell to the nose of sharks, which can detect odors and electrical currents far from sight of the boat.

Then you wait for sharks to follow the chum highway right to the boat.

"We were waiting for big ones. We didn't want to catch a small shark," Cromer said.

A big one arrived Saturday morning. It swam by the boat.

"It looked like a submarine," said Cromer, who lives in Ojai and keeps his boat in Channel Islands Harbor when he's not off fishing for marlin and sailfish at Catalina Island or Cabo San Lucas in Baja, Mexico.

Cromer and his crew were fishing with a 130 Penn International reel with 130-pound monofilament line and 18-foot 600 strand of steel leader to withstand the sharp teeth of the shark. They hooked a huge chunk of albacore on a 10/0 hook and started fishing.

They hooked the mako about 10:30 a.m. on Saturday. Brad De La Cruz of Marina Del Rey took the rod and strapped himself into the fighting chair for the long battle ahead. Cromer ran the boat.

De La Cruz fought the fish for seven hours. The crew finally subdued the fish and roped it to the boat at 5:30 p.m. Earlier in the fight, De La Cruz worked the shark close enough to the boat to put a gaff in it. The shark thrashed the water white and straightened the gaff like a thin clothes hanger.

Off went the shark. De La Cruz had more sweat to give before subduing the big shark.

Deadline was 7 p.m. to weigh in the big shark for the tournament. The crew didn't have much time to spare. A 35-minute delay because of a breakdown further stalled their start for the harbor. They arrived at the scales at 7:20.

"It was like we didn't catch the fish. It didn't count. We were 20 minutes late," Cromer said.

The fish weighed 814 pounds and was 10 feet, 5 inches long. "It is the third largest caught in the state, according to what I have been told, " Cromer said.

While it didn't count for the tournament, it will make fine shark steaks for the yacht club.

On Sunday, another After Midnight crew member, Mike Villano of Aliso Viejo, caught a 247-pound mako. While not close to the 814-pounder caught Saturday, it was the largest of the day and for the tournament. It earned the boat about $15,000 for largest fish of the day and largest of tournament. That's nothing compared to the $989,910 payout Cromer and crew received for boating a 500-pound marlin in the Bisbee's Black and Blue Marlin Tournament about three years ago down in Baja.

The mako is considered one of the hardest fighting fish in the world. They come well equipped to make catching them difficult. The teeth of mako are long, thin and sharp as a razor -- great for catching smaller fish and cutting fishing lines.

Of all the sharks, the mako is considered the the sleekest, the most powerful and the fastest pound for pound.

The mako can grow to to maximum lengths of 12 feet and weigh more than 1,500 pounds. The California reel and rod record was set on Sept. 5, 1999, by Tom Brooks Jr., who caught a 986-pound mako at Santa Barbara Island.

Mako can swim at least 20 mph. Some claim they swim much faster. Mako can leap as high as 20 feet out of the water. They have been known to crash land on boats.