Huge Mako Shark on Stellwagen
Capt. Rich Antonino
August 29, 2009
Stellwagen Bank - Saltwater Fishing Report
This was a grand slam week for us on the Black Rose. 5 trips in 5 days. Two tuna trips, both successful. 3 shark trips with the same customer and each day got better. They started great! I HAD A THREE-DAY TRIP CANCELED FOR NEXT WEEK AS MY CUSTOMER'S ARMY COMMITMENT IN AFGHANISTAN IS KEEPING HIM OFF OF MY BOAT! THE WEATHER LOOKS GREAT FOR TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, AND THURSDAY. CALL 508-269-1882 AND I'LL GET YOU OUT THERE.
Today was incredible fishing. Period. I'll start backwards....Capt. Tom King's boat landed the largest male mako shark ever reported yesterday. Great guy, amazing fish. Incredible story that went with that huge, 650# mako, too. YouTube him... So, our 98", 344# (official) mako seems small by comparison. But, it's really not a small fish! It's an incredible fish and what a blast catching it.
Here's our story. With one customer fishing for three days this week, our target was sharks. It's a great trip; lots of action, and a chance at something very, very special. In the past two days, we've had a few huge fish take our lines but never get hooked. There are some beasts out here and we've been finding them. Today the weather man missed his mark a bit. I brought Richie as my second mate (video/camera guy). 30 miles out, the winds were brisk from the NE. I was hoping it didn't get worse. There were mostly 4' chops out there. I usually do well in the slop, but he's 5 and it was in the back of my mind. He never flinched. Game on! We hooked up within 5 minutes on a small blue shark. An hour later, we were stuck on 1.... Then the fish found us. We had non-stop action for two hours or so with blue sharks, some pushing 300 pounds. Amazing time. Then, one our "50' down bait", Eric hooked up nicely on a big fish. No crazy runs, but he couldn't stop it. 300 yards, 400 yards...Stopped fish, now a tug of war. Eric gains 50 yards, fish takes 50 yards. Back and forth. Nothing crazy, so we're not worried. The biggest problem was keeping the bluesharks away from his line at the boat. We marked something down deep, then the blue sharks split. I did notice that. The shark on the line took off a bit, cutting across the bow. I took the rod for a minute to the bow and fought the fish so that it headed back to the port side. I saw the dorsal fin come out of the water and screamed "MAKO!"
Roy, on the other hand, said "we have a bigger problem! There's a giant great white at the back of the boat by the chum bucket!!!!" It didn't stick around long, but gave us a little repreive from the blue sharks for a while. I got the rod back to Eric and started the engine, clearing the whole back deck and getting both harpoons, flying gaff, 2 straight gaffs, and tail rope ready. We were set. It wasn't long before that fish was pooned, gaffed, and hogtied tight. Whoa! Props must go out to one of our tackle sponsors with this fish, Okuma. We used an Okuma Titus Gold 50II with 6' Catalina tuna/shark rod. I love that combo and it's drag was as smooth as silk for that battle and every battle we've ever had with it for the past three seasons.
What do we do now? We start casting at the sharks using spinning gear. We used the same 130# mono leader but had a 5' single-strand wire leader before the hook... And for the hooks, we used simple small j-hooks because it was all sight fishing--the second the shark touched the bait we set the hook. This gave us perfect corner-hooks and the small size meant that we could straighten out the hooks by heaving on the wire leader. We'd just bend the hooks back into shape for the next shark! Sweet. Some of the battles lasted 30 minutes on the spinning rods and almost had us getting spooled. What a blast.
This is what we like to do! So, get a crew together for sharks/cod for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday as those days look great and the fishing is AMAZING! We can fish for cod/sharks at the same time if you'd like!!! Thanks, Eric for a great time! Capt. Rich Antonino, Black Rose Fishing Charters, 508-269-1882
Target Species:
sharks
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