Shark Fishing REPORT Saturday June 28

Mike Schmidt invited Scott Gurney and myself to come along for a day of "offshore" shark fishing on his proline 2950 "Seawolf".

We met at Mike's dock in Marina Del Rey at 8am Saturday morning, June 28. The twin 225 horse outboards were warming up when I arrived. Mike had his 12 year old son Dillon helping to load the bins of tuna and the X-large rods from his truck into the boat. I loaded my camera gear and a few Giant Squid from my freezer at home. Mike backed the Seawolf from the slip and off we went. As we headed out of the harbor I begged Mike to stop at Larry's to load up on chum buckets. Mike had a plan and felt confident with what he had on board was going to attract what we were after..............a BIG Mako.

The wind was calm, the skies overcast, and a slight bump from the south kept us from drifting to sleep as Mike wound up the engines and headed for the grounds many miles offshore. We past lots of Mola Mola on our way out.

Once far offshore, near the shipping lanes, Mike zigged and zagged looking for anything that would give him a reason to start a chum slick. The ocean now looked the same in all directions, no sign of land and nothing but alot of water and gray skies all around. Mike studied the sonar and kept his eyes peeled as the Seawolf stalked the area for its prey.

We came into an area the seemed to come alive, bait balls on the surface, feeding Dolphins, Molas, and diving birds in all directions. Mike pointed out some nice bait balls on the meter and gave the ok for Scott and I to load the automatic chummer with Skipjack, Albacore and Mackerel. Scott turned a valve and flipped a switch. Blood and ground flesh began to flow into the wake of the Seawolf as Mike slowly steered her through the area of abundant life.

I really enjoy taking photos and video while on the water and I had my eye on that nice mini tower/crows nest above the bridge on Mike's boat. A ladder on either side leads up to a nice stable platform equipped with a padded leaning rail all the way around. What a great view from up there.

Once Mike laid down a nice trail of slick on the water, the engines were shut down and the guns came out :-) The BIG guns! Heavy two speeds filled brim full of 80#. A Tiagra 80 was readied just in case. Big roller guide rods and heavy cable wire leaders. Mike touched up the big 10/0 hooks with a sharpening stone as the chum barrel drooled tuna goop into the sea.

It was not long before a small Mako showed up at the stern. Mike baited a light outfit and handed the rod to Scott. I scrambled to get up the tower ladder with my cameras. The excited Mako ate the bait right away and Scott was "on". Not a spectacular fight, the Mako was at boat side in short order after a couple of nice runs. I was hoping to get some clean video of aerial acrobatics Mako style. I had brought some tags out with the hope of putting one in a big Mako. We loaded Mike's tagging stick and Dillon went for the tag on the "green" Pup. Two shots and he hit it perfectly! Nice tag! Did I mention this kid is only 12? Mike has a great deckhand in training. Dillon never complained all day, followed every order from the captain, never got seasick, and was one of the most well behaved kids I have ever hung out with, even after eating massive amounts of suger in the form of Crispy Cream donuts. :-) that is a great kid you have there Mike!

Mike released the Mako and we kicked back for a while. A medium sized Blue soon showed up and just kept swimming around near the stern. A shy Blue Shark, Dillon and I were having some fun trying to feed it a Mackerel tied to some string. The Blue would not eat. Dillon held the string for while patiently waiting for the shark to take the offering. Mike suggested tieing a balloon on the other end of the string and tossing it away from the boat. We were all getting bored of watching the Blue and Dillon tossed the meal over the rail. The balloon got a boat length away and a huge dorsal fin popped up right next to the balloon. I FREAKED out and started screaming "HUGE MAKO", "ITS HUGE"!!!

The fire drill was on and all of us got very busy! Mike pinned on a Giant Squid onto one of the big rigs, tossed it out, and without any hesitation the big Mako inhaled and swam away with the bait. Scott ran off and got the boat started and helped Mike into a rod butt belt. I ran back up the stairs with my cameras rolling. WE WERE ON! Cheers came out of all of our mouths as the big fish began to peel line off the reel. Scott and Mike coordinated their efforts and when everything was just right, Mike took some strong swings on the rod to set the hook deep.

The next two or three hours were much like a classic Blue Marlin battle. Lots of chasing the fish with the boat and even more pulling, leaning, and winding on the fish by Mike. About an hour into the fight the Mako got close to the boat for the first time since baiting it. Mike was getting tired and asked Scott to help him get into his stand up gear. We were discussing tagging the shark and releasing it. Mike has landed other Mako's similar in size to what we had on the line in the past. We agreed that a release, was the best choice for the end of this fight. The fact that we had 2 video cameras rolling for most of the battle made that choice easier. But it wasn't over yet. Not by a long shot. This fish did not even know it was in any trouble yet. Not really. When the Mako got close to the Seawolf, It spooked and made a run that let all of us know just what a powerful animal we were dealing with.

Mike's reel began to empty at a steady rate. Faster and faster the fish swam away. I had the camera zoomed in on a spot on the water I would expect the big Mako to emerge, if it was going to go airborne. The run was close to the sea surface and Mike followed from the port side, around the twin outboards and off to starboard. Scott pushed the throttle forward and attempted to keep up with the fish while Mike tried to put some line back on the overheated 2-speed Penn International. Mike was really starting to feel it and asked for some cold water. He downed half of it and poured the rest on the reel. The angry fish eventually went back down and made Mike work to get all of that line back, a foot or two at a time. The next time the shark got close to the boat again, we all noticed something unusual about this fish. There seemed to be a coloration near the sharks mouth that looked strange. We could not see what it was exactly but it was apparent there was something wrong with the head area of our fish. It appeared that the stomach was turned inside out and trailing out the corner of the shark's mouth. The trailing tissue looked damaged. We did not feel comfortable releasing a fish in this condition and we made the decision to land the shark. The fight continued back and forth for perhaps another 30 minutes. It was time for me to come down to deck level and help prep the cockpit for whatever was going to happen soon. I was really getting nervous about dealing with such a dangerous pissed off animal at the boat. Scott and I were trying to decide who was going to do what when the time came. The plan was for Scott to try and keep the boat positioned with the fish off the starboard corner while keeping forward motion with the boat. Then slowly, Mike would reel the fish into leadering range. We got into that planned position, gloves on and "ready" several times, and at the last second the shark would change course and screw us up.

Finally everything came together. I had two of the biggest flying gaffs on the boat ready to go, one other flyer as backup and 3 pole gaffs and two tail ropes all in place. Only one small problem, I had never stuck a fish over 200 pounds in my life. This was not a great situation to learn anything either. This was possibly Mike's largest fish ever and I did not want to be the one who blows it for him at leader. The pressure was on all of us big time. We were all very excited and screaming at one another when the swivel connecting the steel leader cleared the water and it was "time".

Scott jumped down from the bridge and leadered the fish closer as Mike stepped back out of the way for the moment of truth. I said a quick silent prayer and gently set the gaff across the fish, just behind the dorsal and pulled with everything I had. I expected the fish to explode. Instead, I looked down to discover the gaff did not penetrate the skin. The tip had disconnected from the pole. I am not sure what happened next other than the fish sounded 10 or 20 feet. To avoid any more embarrassment to myself, lets just say I had a few more shots at the fish and blew every one of them. I just could not get any of the flyers into the fish past the barb. Luckily the fish was pretty much "done" and all three of us worked to secure the fish with rope and pole gaffs. The first rope around the tail and then the second around the gill area. The fish was strung out between two cleats and the flyer was stuck in the only place it would penetrate, the gills. Mike grabbed a sharp knife and slit the gills to help kill the fish quicker and preserve the quality of the meat.

It was now late afternoon, and we discussed the possibility of getting back to the harbor for weigh in before they closed up for the evening. Mike fired up the engines and off we went. The Seawolf was unable to run at speed because the shark was tied off to the side. I was able to get the dock on my cell phone. They agreed to stay late for us. The 76 was scheduled to close at 6 and we were looking at an ETA of about 6:30 or so. It was very cool of them to help us out. When we pulled up to Larry's dock, a few of the local tournament sharkers were waiting for us. While at sea, we measured the fork length of the Mako at 9 feet conservatively. Mike had a length/weight chart on board and we looked up our fish. The Mako should weigh 400 plus at the scale and we knew we had several inches of fish more than the ballpark 9 feet(fork length) we measured.

The Mako weighed in at 515 pounds and measured 9 feet 9 inches(fork length) and over 10 feet total length. No firearms were used to subdue this fish and all IGFA rules were followed exactly. We took some photos and Mike quickly dressed the fish and divided up the meat. We cleaned up the boat, iced the steaks, cleaned up the dock, and headed for home. A special THANK YOU to the stranger who offered us all of the ice at the dock.

For sure one of the most excellent ocean adventures of my lifetime. Thanks Mike, Scott and Dillon! That was awesome! ;-)

Frank Nielsen