you mako my day
Hey Guys,
Here's a cut and past from my post on the bulla board. I was playing host to a steelhead/trout/striper buddy from the bay area this past 5 days.
He had 7 new species on the fly and is probably ruined forever. lol.
Here's the mako report. I'll post a corbina report next.
To round out exposure to the saltwater species down here, I decided to take Brendon on a Mako trip in San Diego with Capt. Dave of Bowman Bluewater.
We showed up and the wind was already up and things looked really sloppy.
Dave gave us an option to back out, but there was no way we were not going to at least give it a shot.
We loaded up the boat with smaller rods for inshore and used the guides 16wt for the sharks.
He had a really nice 25ft boat that made the ride in rough water a bit wet but manageable.
After cruising to his spot, we set up a slick and essentially sat and waited while the boat drifted.
Luckily, the wind died down for us and the rocking of the boat was a bit more manageable.
45 minutes later the first Mako and a small blue showed up.
Soon later a couple more Makos showed up.
The routine was basically bait and switch using Mackerel teasers.
Shark chases the teaser and its pulled with a large 6/0 fly thrown in its place.
I hooked the first one which just ran on me...no jumping or walking.
It took a while to land on a smaller 13 wt. We boated that fish and brendon was up.
A 150lb fish was milling around, so that was next on the 16wt.
Brendon hooked that guy also and he too just ran...no jumping. Took a while to get that guy to the boat.
The next 10 fish or so were various scenarios of jumpers going totally nuts and were almost impossible to keep on.
One ran right at the boat tail walking into the side of the boat.
Brendon totally had the fish under control and then total mahem ensued.
We actually have video where everyone is scattering when the fish ran straight at us halfway out of the water.
Another flipped on the line breaking off in the 80lb butt section.
Others would pop off right after the take and running right at you.
The last one was a 225 lber that was milling around the boat for about 3 hours periodically chomping on the boat.
I missed two takes where he threw the fly.
The third take was the money take right in the corner of the mouth.
2 tailwalks and 3 double backflips later, he was off.
We actually got some excellent video footage of this stuff which i'll be compiling all day. Takes...missed takes, etc.
Description by words and pictures doesn't do the fish justice.
Sight casting to these beasts milling around was unbelievable.
It was hard to fight intuition to set early when you see the mouth open up.
Also fun with mackerel busting anchovies and squid at the surface.
Catching bait on the 9wt rod was fun.
Brendon also caught one of the blue sharks to get him away from the boat
.
Dave was saying this was his best day so far this season.
I think we just lucked out and used some of our good karma up on this one.
Here's a few pictures....I'll see about getting this video online.
We have quite a bit of it and i'm a novice editor so I imagine it will take me till the evening to compile it in a reduced format.
Overall this trip was a good one I think. Total of 7 new species on the fly for my friend and he's now way stoked on saltwater.
-Paul
Mako Release
Brendon on one
MBGS (Mako Be Good Stick)
Getting Hungry
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