Oceanside Thresher
 

It's been a while since I reported in. I went to my of favorite spot, the Oceanside Artifishables Friday. I went in the afternoon, cuz I figured that would give the fish some time to recover after the all-night full moon party. I hooked this thresher while trolling a Rapala over one of the rock piles. After a half hour of looking at this,

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/j...esherBendo.jpg

I remembered I had a camera so I got it out to document this fish if I was lucky enough to get him up. Here is first color. He was tail-hooked. The only way I gained line for a while was by chasing him down with my Hobie when he came up near the surface.

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/j...FirstColor.jpg

I could see by my GPS trail that he was heading directly for one of the rock piles. If he went in there, I would lose him for sure, so I tightened down my drag a bit, and he eventually turned away. Here he is after 45 minutes next to my boat. I couldn't get his head up for a photo and my arms were too tired to lift him out, so this is the best shot I could get on my own.

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/j...Thresher-1.jpg

Here is my ad for Rapala lures. Great for Threshers. Moments after this photo, He thrashed a bit more and embedded the front lure hook into my paddle bungie! Now my boat is attached to an angry thresher shark! I was able to hold his tail up with my left hand and wrench the hook free with my pliers before he was able to turn me over. Close call! He swam away fine and I went on to catch 20 assorted bass. All released.

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/j...erWithLure.jpg

Overall, a fun and beautiful afternoon on the water. I suggest afternoon/evening fishing after a clear night and a full moon. Wayne

good for you!!!:cheers1::luxhello::luxhello::luxhello::luxh ello::luxhello:

Nice! :luxhello:

props on the release. First shark from the yak? sounds like fun.

yeeeaahhhh put a bend on that kencore!:you_rock:

NICE!

That bendo pic is awesome :cheers1:

hahahahaha.....thats exactly why I don't troll rapala's ....and NEVER EVER with both sets of trebles installed. always remove that front treble if you MUST troll one.

Could you imagine if that was hooked closer to the tip of the tail....what if it snagged your sleeve/arm....or face.

Also rapala's almost always tail hook threshers, which is not desirable for two reasons.....
the fight is much less exciting, and much shorter due to lack of water moving thru the gills.
and by the time you get in next to the boat after being pulled backwards it will be pretty close to dead, although they are so tough I don't think it actually kills them, but why risk it if tsharks are not your target.

Cool pics and great release!!!! be safe out there!!

A wise old ugly dude once told me, "Back trebles catch fish, middle trebles catch fishermen..."

Good advice. It always seems that once you unhook one treble, the other rebooks itself :mad:

With T-shark fishing from a kayak, I have never tried to use a hook-less rapala or bait-o-matic as a teaser and on a second rod have baited hook ready to throw out when the teaser is hit. Done it from a boat, but has anyone tried this from a kayak? It enabled us to mouth hook the shark when used from a boat, but a kayak would probably take a little more coordination or maybe not?

Kevin

Thresher
 

I will definitely take the advice about the front treble to heart. It makes sense. I was actually trolling over the artificial reefs trying to scare up some big bass (with thresher shark in the back of my mind, I admit) And you never know when you might stumble across some bonito out there. They also love the Rapala. The other thing I like about Rapalas is that you can really feel when they are running clean. As soon as they pick up some detritus, The wobble stops and you know it's time to clean it off. I have some of the new Koppers jointed herrings that are great looking lures, but I just can't FEEL them as well. They swim great and look natural, but they don't seem to have that violent wobble thats brings fish in.