My last report was about hooking my first legitamit shark but unfortunately loosing it under the pier.
After getting back from my trip to Southern California with an urge to go get my shark I planned a trip to Tomalas Bay with my friend who has never caught anything larger than a 4lb catfish.
We had 8lbs of mackerel and two boxes of squid. Had an incoming tide most of the day. We had three rigs, my Curado 300EJ with 190 yds of 30lb, Penn Squall 40LD with 400 yds of 40lb and a plfuger reel with 180yds of 70lb.
Started off with 3 nice bat rays (Batrayz) around 50-80lbs.
Then my buddy got a 44" leopard shark.
Things got slow so I decided to rig a handling with 550 cord to a steel leader.
After a while the cord starts twitching. So I set the hook and pull it in. Never fought on the handline so it was still pretty green boat side. Turned out to be a 4.5-5' Sevengill Shark, a first for me. I decided to keep it because I heard they are good table fare.
Funny video my friend took of me freaking out when I saw it an it almost jumping into our cramped 14' aluminum (named Shark Bait).
After that we got a couple more rays and finally hooked up another shark. After a short battle and a longer battle with the anchor rope we got it boat side. Since we weren't going to keep it we quickly towed it to shore for some photos.
Measurements were 73.5" total length, 54" fork length and a thin 26" girth.
Shark swam away strong. Very excited to get my first real shark (over 6') on the sand! Can't wait to get back out there and hook into some more big'uns! Ended the day with 2 Sevengills, 1 Leopard, 4-5 bat rays all over 3' and one rock crab.
Does anyone know how to prepare Sevengill jaws? I was warned they are softer cartilage than other sharks so the typical method wouldn't work I heard.
Turned out well so far
Nice sharks, I like seeing those exotic, non-florida fish.
Just an average fisherman.