By Chris Fierro, Wilderness Systems Pro-Staff
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.
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 gray 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 OEX Pro Staffers 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 gray
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!
