It's been a while since I posted so I'll start where I left off.
Not much shark fishing or fishing in general because of school and work this semester, but have still managed a few trips.
About two months ago we finally stumble across the productive hole we have been hoping for. Every trip so far has produced at least 2 fish and none have been "babies."
Mid March me and my buddy participated in a Bat Ray competition that was just for bragging rights. Most competitors are down south in San Diego area where the water stays warm enough that they are able to catch big bat rays year round. But this yet we were ready. 6 rods,30 brand new leaders, about 30lbs of various baits, bacon and other good munchies.
Got our rods in the water 15min after the start at 6am and stayed until 1:30am (ended at 12:00, but we still had more bait). Really slow day, probably caused from the extremely clean water. We did manage 2 rays. 46" and a beast at 55" that kept us in first place until the last half hour. Unfortunately we didn't win, but we still made our presence know, which was our main goal.
Also recently picked up a new reel from another member on here. I got the Fin Nor Offshore 8500 which is a beast of a reel. Unfortunately this reel is to big for any near shore catches here, but I got some new line for it and plan on using it for threshers and makos that come up to the boat while were out.
I think the depth hunter will be a perfect match for this reel in case we see a meter mark down deep, then I'll be able to drop a bait right on its nose. Also trying to figure out a good rod to match it with. I tried a Ugly Stik Tiger Lite Jigging rod 80-130lb, but even with 80lb braid this reel easily over powered the rod, so I'm looking at the 100-200lb rod or looking at something new.
More recently this week we made another trip to out spot. This time it was just me and my girlfriend. I had high hopes for the trip because me had fresh caught mackerel and the weather has been warm the last week. Even with only three rods in the water the bite was off the hook. We were getting bites so constantly that I didn't have any time to be with her really. So once we had caught 6 sharks, missed many more and caught a big 52" ray, I called my buddy to come catch some fish and man the rods for me. Once he shows up he bring the bad juju and the bite shuts down with only 2 more sharks caught. Next day he headed our with a lady and they managed 8 sharks and a bunch of misses also. This was exciting for me, because my best day before this had been 7 sharks in a trip.
Probably won't be chasing sharks for a while with salmon opening up this Saturday and rockfish opening up yesterday. But we have already planned a trip offshore to the Monterey canyon with a bucket of chum to see what's swimming around down there. Very good possibility of Sevengills, Sixgills, Pacific Sleepers, Soupfin, Leopard, Mako and Threshers.
And in recent news a 18' Great White has been hanging around about 100-400yds off the beach 2 min from my dorm. One of my friends saw it surface a week ago and another saw it attack a seal a couple days ago.
You guys get some cool fish over there!