Newport Rockfish and Bycatch 3/7/14
 

Late report. On the water at 7. Made a bunch of Macs at the entrance. Some horses and some nice 7 & 8 inchers that I planned on sending down for the Rockfish just to switch up from the squid. Got my limit in a little over an hour. 9 Reds and one Copper.
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It was during the last half hour I decided to send a live Mac down. It was on the bottom for maybe 30 seconds before it for popped. Drag began peeling off. At first I was thinking I got lucky and stuck a ghost but after a few seconds fighting this thing it was clear it was a Shark. Made a bunch of freight train runs. Took me 25 minutes to get it to color from 185'. I thought it was a Seven Gill but I am certainly no Shark expert (someone out there can tell me). It was huge to me, every bit half as long as my PA12. After some pics I cut the beast loose close to the hook. It swam away strong. I was an awesome fight.
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Not a soul out there with me that morning. Got home cleaned fish and showered by noon. Fred Hall after that. Nice full day :D

:notworthy:

Thanks, but no thanks. Nice tacos though.

It was MakoBob!

Check out that last pic. That's not the first time that shark has been caught.

That looks like a shadow of the hook

It's a SOUPFIN shark. Look kind of similar to the smooth hounds

No cigar for you. Not a Mako, and much too good looking to be Bob.

Looks like two hooks but on two leaders going to a split and the line is twisted before the split. Strange the shark took both at the same point, in the corner of the mouth. Looks like soupfin to me, but I'n no expert.

Good on you for the release! The marks on her back makes me think shes recently mated and they give live birth.

:p

Soup fin, otherwise known as tope.
Won't be long before they are in shore. It's one of the species you'll see in the surf at la jolla when the leopards are thick.
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...g/DSC00067.jpg

I was wondering when our resident Jaws expert would chime in... He's caught almost every species in the West and East Coasts...

You still in Japan or back in FL... Haven't seen your shark adventures and miss them!:you_rock:

Thanks JeffB and Lowprofile!