OnTheFly said:
That's AWESOME!! Good action! Any more story?
Well it was my first shark and it surprised the "you know what" right out of me.
My first fish was a fighter, had to have taken me about 10 minutes to get it on board. It was just stripping line like crazy and every time I thought I was getting it close, it would take off again. Then it put on the brakes and it seemed like forever before I could get it moving again. My arms were so tired that I had to take off my coat after just to get the weight off of me.
When it was my turn up to bat again, I started reeling and was kind of confused, the fish was coming in way too easy and then all of a sudden it broke the surface. Big WTF moment cuz tuna just don't do that... then we saw what it was and I kind of freaked like what am I supposed to do now?
The guys gaffed it and got it on deck and Captain Dave came out and gave us some shark 101. Showed us their weird eyelids, how the teeth retract and had us run our hands down the side to feel how the texture of their skin changes depending on the direction. If you go head to tail, it's really smooth, if you go tail to head it is rough like a cat's tongue. I never expected to touch a shark.
I landed the next 2 pretty quickly but the last one about kicked my butt. That's the one I'm holding in the picture. By then my arms were shot and after working it for awhile one of the deck hands actually had to help support the rod so I could reel it in.
I didn't care either, I have the luxury of playing the girl card when needed
