I had my question answered today in La Jolla

[Cbad Mike]

About two years ago while fishing I saw a Great White from about 20 - 30 yards away from me swimming on the surface. I estimated it at about 14 feet long based on the distance from its dorsal fin to its tail which were both out of the water. It slowly swam like that for 30-40 seconds before it went back under. I remember being a little freaked out about it but at the same time feeling pretty excited that I got to see such a creature live and in its natural habitat that most people only will ever see on TV. It's a vision I will never forget.
As we all know, periodically someone will post a report, story, or video here about their or someone else's close encounter with a Great White while kayaking. As I read those posts I always wondered how I'd react if I saw one up close, like right next to me. Would I scream like a little girl? Would I fill my waders with mud? Would I paddle so fast back to the safety of the beach that I'd leave a wake behind me? I thought about it a few times and wondered which one, if not all of those things I would do.
WELL.........
today I got my answer!
I was in my slow relaxed paddle mode trolling a Mack. As I dipped my left paddle in the water I looked down and saw a ton of small fish right beneath the surface. I then continued my stroke on my right side but I didn't see any fish on my right. For a split second I thought that was odd and right when I was about to dip my left side in again I was looking down on my left and a Great White swam past me in the opposite direction. It was about 4 feet away from me and was BIG and FAT!!!! Its dorsal fin was about six inches under the water and I looked at it right in its eye that just looked like a black hole. It's back was dark gray and I could clearly see the separation and pattern between the gray back and white bottom because it was so fat. It looked either pregnant or like it had a seal in its belly and I'd say that it was wider than my Stealth. My kayak is 14 feet and the shark was easily 12 - 13 feet long. As soon as it passed I finished my left stroke and then as I dipped my paddle for my right stroke I turned around and saw it swim up into an on coming swell, turn, and disappear. The whole encounter lasted only about 10 seconds from start to finish but I will NEVER forget it. It is truly an experience that can never be adequately described and I have to say its one of the most amazing things that I've ever seen.
Anyway.......
My question was answered.......
I didn't mess my waders, scream like little girl, or even really break my slow paddle rhythm. (maybe because I didn't see its teeth).
And now my report,
Greenies are around were easy to get on my sabiki.
I fly lined them and pulled them all around the outside of the kelp all day for nothing. Trolling wasn't easy because there are so many floating kelp stringers to avoid. The seals were in force and ate 4 of my Macks. The water was warm and clear.
From what I saw and heard there wasn't anything caught by anyone. SLOOOOOWWWWWW!

:cheers1:

[cell128]

I woulda shat my pants and screamed like a 4 year old girl simultaneously..... Then I would of got the hell of there...were you by yourself? Mad respect for your experience.

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[sdmosch]

I seen you out there today. Pretty cool that you were able to see one in its natural habitat. Maybe it will eat some dogs for us!:D

[skrilla]

Cool encounter report. No wonder theres no fish in LJ. :p

[lowprofile]

been there. its awesome isn't it!?

["jjcawjj"]

Great Read! Thanks for sharing! I'm sure I would have Mud my waders !:gnorsi:

[Dannowar]

Oh cool I was diving right inside the kelp yesterday!!

[battleborn]

thanks for the read. was like being there. well without the risk of being eaten. and the awesome visual memory. Would have been great to have seen it person.

[Quilted Germ]

That is awesome.....glad you got to experience it. I'm hesitantly jealous though I don't know that I really want to see the same....

[dmrides]

Damn Mike, that's awesome! What a sight. Glad it swam off without any further investigation!

The other day I was thinking of how I had never seen a white. That made me wonder how many whites had seen me.

[Zfish03]

Great story Mike! I could have sworn I saw a large shark's tail and a splash by the kelp last sunday, and yesterday in the evening I saw a sea lion hauling ass on the surface by pass my mackerel and b-lined to the kelp...hmmm. Almost forget we are critters floating on plastic in the wilderness sometimes!
Anywhoo, slow day for me too.

[tunaseeker]

That's amazing! We are in their world for sure! Cool experience for you! Not sure how I would handle it either!!

[DennisMorgan]

Pucker factor for sure....


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[h2ofishfo]

Eat them dogs !!!

[Zfish03]

People that do cove swims through the kelp, over the canyon, and to shore have balls. Especially swimming with tasty sea lions and pups frolicking around. I prefer my ocean swims away from sea lion breeding grounds, because I'm a pussy. Sooner or later...:eating:

[Rambo]

scary thoughts when i'm on the water of La Jolla and in the back of my mind is that there's shark out there. I'd be soiling my waders and holding knife encase that shark decides to attack. But glad it was a shark that just cruise by. :you_rock:

[Bert Vega]

That is a crazy story. Thanks for sharing.

[ronbo613]

Saw one while making bait under the pier before sunrise. Scared all the fish away. Like you, I was more fascinated than scared. No point in being scared anyway; what are you going to do?

[ctfphoto]

Wow Mike that sounds like a very cool experience. About 3 years ago, on my second trip out kayak fishing I saw a GW in the distance. I may be weird, but I thought it was really cool to see.

Ya all those swimmers in La Jolla, makes me feel very safe on the kayak. So many other targets with the swimmers and seals, why go after a large piece of plastic?

[driftwood]

Yup, it's that time of the year lots big shark fins seen sticking out of the water. I had my share of GW encounters.

If your nervous about sharks in La Jolla... stay out of the water from July thru Oct. Especially the month of Oct up north.

[taggermike]

I think we all have that same question you had. I've sure wondered. Good for you that your answer wasn't screaming, crapping, or running. Gotta figure that by the time you see the shark it has already seen/heard/smelled you. And if it was going to close the deal so to speak, you wouldn't see it coming. I've gotten drive bys from about every marine creature that lives in So Cal except a white. I look at that as a when and not in if. Thanks for sharing your "when" with us. Mike

[DESTROYER]

Man! 15 years of kayak fishing and I never saw a GW. I use to think the same thing...What would I do? Besides butterflies in my stomach I think I would just sit there.

[fisher_4_life]

Hey Mike, thanks again for the help in the surf yesterday! It was greatly appreciated after my not so graceful attempt at landing! That is pretty cool seeing that GW

[FISH11]

Hey Mike we both launched at the same time and I talked to you while we where both trolling our macs. You where heading back north and I was heading south west. I was in the white X Factor. You didn't say it then so it must have happended afterwards. I'm always looking around for that and after having caught and seen up close Makos and had a gray whale take my line and give me a ride. I think I would react like you. Another cool experience. The number of seals that were out yesterday and several where very vocal anouncing themselves constantly. I only lost 2 macs to the seals with all the bait that was out there, no wonder they often swam by without bothering my flylined mac. I was hopping for another hook up, but nothing. At least on Teusday I hooked a yellow around 3:15 fought it for about 15 minutes before loosing it when I tried to untangle my braid from my flyline rod on the end of my pole with the Iron. Another leason learned when fighting a big fish everything else is not important. I should have just cut the flylined line and let the mac swim away with the 100+ feet of braid. The number of runs it made and peeling line with drag screaming and pole absorbing the head shake where an awesome experience. When messing with the other braid at the tip of the rod it allowed the fish to head shake off the Iron. I was so hopping for more of the same. The wind made it a bit choppy in the early afternoon but it settled down some, later on. The surf was so much smaller than on Tuesday. Easy launch and landing. Thanks for sharing the experience. Mark

[buttchaser]

I seen one a few years ago, I screamed like a little gurl, then just about soiled my waders....

[fongman]

Another leason learned when fighting a big fish everything else is not important. I should have just cut the flylined line and let the mac swim away with the 100+ feet of braid.

Wouldn't reeling in your mac to avoid a tangle be a better lesson learned? To me, cutting your line could cause needless injury, and possibly kill, any number of marine mammals or birds while your happiness would only last until you finished eating your yellow.

[FISH11]

It's not possible to reel in the second line when the fish on the Iron is pulling hard and trying to head shake off the Iron. It was not like there was a hook on bait and it swallowed it. I fought it for a while unfortunately at the time I thought I had tired it some giving a little time to pull the second line from the tip guide. Yellows are very strong and when they realize they are getting reeled in they sound again and again. There wasn't a problem until the fish pulled my kayak and after some time was trying to circle around causing my kayak to go back over the slack on the other line. Usually I don't have two lines in the water but after hours of trolling and soaking the mac without any action and seeing a bait ball I thought it was worth a try with the Iron. If the reel was a motor I could have easily pushed a button to retreive the second line. Cutting the other line might not be the best option but it would be what I would do if the same thing happened again. If someone doesn't agree then, they don't have to do it.

[stevenc]

paddle about 100 yards of lj launch and meter the depth. Keep metering a few times on your way out. Its a pretty deep canyon close to shore.

[iethinker]

Two weekends ago I spotted a large black triangular dorsal fin briefly emerge from the water about 40-yards off the outer Solana kelp. It was moving south. The seal lions seemed agitated lifting their heads far out of the water looking in that direction too. I was shaking scared and paddled to center kelp and waited for a while before resuming fishing. The fin traveled only about 15-yards before sinking and disappearing.

[iethinker]

I wonder if there is some convenient shark repellent that would be pragmatic to carry? That or just bring my 357-magnum! Might be good for both sharks and those inconsiderate full throttle power-boaters...Joke!

[cell128]

Maybe if you had a nasty burrito for breakfast it would ruin its appetite right when you crap your pants.

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[blitzburgh]

Cool read!

[JDW]

I think I would have screamed out my butt if i saw a GWS that close. Gotta keep fishing tho! :gnorsi:

[Aaron&Julie]

Cool story Mike, and hearing it at the launch was cool too. Too bad for both of us the whites and yellows didn't show up.
Thanks again for getting my wheels back to me.

Aaron

[fresh to salt]

Great story and glad you didnt soil your waders! I was actually talking to friends about those white sharks being out there this past weekend before we fished the squid beds is O'side. Way to KCCO!

[kareem korn]

Great story.

[Dane101]

Don't kid yourselves,He was checking you out to see if you looked like a furball:drool5: yum yum doughnut.Probably was lookin you over long before you saw him.:afraid:

[bigbarrels]

Had something big, wide and white swim under my yak and away from me a little over a week ago.....could not make it out but it was big .....appeared more white and I couldn't appreciate any grey on it but the water was a bit dirty.....thanks for sharing your experience

[johnnyblaze2009]

I went on a friends 24' Seaswirl overnight fishing in Mexico last year. It was like 2-3am and we were making bait in some thick fog. Anyways with the floodlights pointing in the water we see a shadow pass through about 3/4 of the length of the boat, it passed under the light and I seen it's eye looking at me. I was in awe and very nervous but glad to say that I've seen one in person, I don't know how I'd react when I see one on my kayak, but I could assume the shark would taste either poo or piss seeping through a scupper hole 😝


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[sdmosch]

Don't kid yourselves,He was checking you out to see if you looked like a furball:drool5: yum yum doughnut.Probably was lookin you over long before you saw him.:afraid:

That's what I was thinking!

[philr21]

If it isn't on GoPro it didn't happen.

:)

Pretty cool sighting although one I can do without.

[EDC]

June 8th I was about 2-300 yards west of the LJ kelp beds and saw something big fat and grey hanging out a few feet under the surface about 30 yards ahead of me. Being curious and stupid I closed the distance wondering if this could be a white shark. I kept telling myself it couldn't be, and secretly hoped it wasn't, but when I got about 5 yards away it turned a little and I realized that it was a shark. It was only 8 or 9 feet long but really fat so my only assumption is a white. As soon as I realized it actually was a shark I quickly turned back to the kelp and stayed there a while. I didn't really feel like it would attack or anything but I freaked out more than the prideful man in me would like to admit when I noticed that I was heading right for it and might end up aggravating it. I by no means am a shark expert and sure as hell don't know what an annoyed GW would do to the nearest bystander. It was just out by itself seemingly hanging out wanting to be left alone and here I come to like a pesky little brat. I think I'd rather just give them their space and hopefully they will do the same with us. But maybe I'm just a little bitch.

[driftwood]

Great white population explosion...

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/vG0k-tvRgnU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[fasha]

I enjoyed the read, motivated me to share one of my encounters with the toothy kind.
In the last 15 years of yak fishing I've seen a few large fins in La Jolla but no real close ups.
Two summers ago a buddy and I went for a little scuba dive off the point, we started from the cove. Beautiful, clear water, could see 30' easy.
Got out to about 40-50', cruising through the kelp, checking out the scenery, lots of stuff to see. My buddy was behind me and out of sight as I came out of some think kelp, first thing I see is a very round, good sized shark swimming directly at me. I can't emphasize the roundness enough, grey top, white bottom and we're eye to eye about 20' from each other. It happened so fast I really didn't have time to think. It came so close I could almost touch it before it took a 90 degree angle and swam away from me.
I swam up to my buddy, shook him and pointed at the shark that he had not noticed yet. He proceeded to pull out this little 3" dive knife and held it out in front of him as the shark swam 2 big circles around us before it disappeared. I had half a tank of air left which was gone in 5 minutes. We headed to the surface and went for a long kick back in. When we we're on dry land I asked my friend what he thought he was going to do with that little knife and his reply was "if it attacked I was going to stab you and swim away". Mutha f****r. Estimate of shark was 8-9', would of rather seen it from the yak.

[FlyFishinYakr]

About two years ago while fishing I saw a Great White from about 20 - 30 yards away from me swimming on the surface. I estimated it at about 14 feet long based on the distance from its dorsal fin to its tail which were both out of the water. It slowly swam like that for 30-40 seconds before it went back under. I remember being a little freaked out about it but at the same time feeling pretty excited that I got to see such a creature live and in its natural habitat that most people only will ever see on TV. It's a vision I will never forget.
As we all know, periodically someone will post a report, story, or video here about their or someone else's close encounter with a Great White while kayaking. As I read those posts I always wondered how I'd react if I saw one up close, like right next to me. Would I scream like a little girl? Would I fill my waders with mud? Would I paddle so fast back to the safety of the beach that I'd leave a wake behind me? I thought about it a few times and wondered which one, if not all of those things I would do.
WELL.........
today I got my answer!
I was in my slow relaxed paddle mode trolling a Mack. As I dipped my left paddle in the water I looked down and saw a ton of small fish right beneath the surface. I then continued my stroke on my right side but I didn't see any fish on my right. For a split second I thought that was odd and right when I was about to dip my left side in again I was looking down on my left and a Great White swam past me in the opposite direction. It was about 4 feet away from me and was BIG and FAT!!!! Its dorsal fin was about six inches under the water and I looked at it right in its eye that just looked like a black hole. It's back was dark gray and I could clearly see the separation and pattern between the gray back and white bottom because it was so fat. It looked either pregnant or like it had a seal in its belly and I'd say that it was wider than my Stealth. My kayak is 14 feet and the shark was easily 12 - 13 feet long. As soon as it passed I finished my left stroke and then as I dipped my paddle for my right stroke I turned around and saw it swim up into an on coming swell, turn, and disappear. The whole encounter lasted only about 10 seconds from start to finish but I will NEVER forget it. It is truly an experience that can never be adequately described and I have to say its one of the most amazing things that I've ever seen.
Anyway.......
My question was answered.......
I didn't mess my waders, scream like little girl, or even really break my slow paddle rhythm. (maybe because I didn't see its teeth).
And now my report,
Greenies are around were easy to get on my sabiki.
I fly lined them and pulled them all around the outside of the kelp all day for nothing. Trolling wasn't easy because there are so many floating kelp stringers to avoid. The seals were in force and ate 4 of my Macks. The water was warm and clear.
From what I saw and heard there wasn't anything caught by anyone. SLOOOOOWWWWWW!

:cheers1:


Thanks for sharing Mike! I just lightened the load on my Yak by about 5#. Since the center area of an Outback is almost useless I was planning on bringing my "Free Diving" gear with me for when fishing is just plain SSlllooooowwwww. :boring: :boring: :boring:
But now...I don't think so! If that had happened to me, I would have Pi$$ed so hard through my waders or board shorts it would have looked like "Old Faithful" or my Kayak had sprung a leak! :eek:
I would have peddled and paddled so fast I would have left a Roostertail behind me!
:cheers1: Here's to you for keeping your cool.
FFY