What’s this fish?
 

Two anglers in Alamitos Bay, different days, had pretty much the same experience.

Quick hard bite, zig zag run, some straight runs, a drag burner, and no color seen.

The bay does have sea turtles, but I don’t know if they zig zag.

I plan on going Saturday to catch the beast. Both fights were in the fifteen minute range.

Shark or mud marlin

Leopard shark?

Probably a bat ray, thick in places right now...

If they were still having good runs more than 6 or 7 minutes into the fight, I would go with Batray, BSB or possibly Thresher. Although BSB is less likely than the other two. Probably not Leopard shark or Halibut. Soupfin is another possibility but also less common in the bays.

Unless you were flylining some eel grass it probably wasn't a turtle

I know a guy who’s hooked two turtles In his kayak fishing career, and I don’t believe he was using eel grass for bait.

that's wild; but then again it's a big ocean and anything's possible

would not be happy to see it at color!

Both times we thought they were giant grouper! I’ve also caught a few giant snapping turtle at my grandparents farm house in Ohio, back in the day. Fishing plastic worms. Here’s an old pic of one That I caught.


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And here is a picture of a free swimming sea turtle in La Jolla back in 2014


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That snapper is nuts. I have seen some big ones swimming in the NH lakes and rivers of my childhood, and even hooked one in a trout stream one time (although not quite that big!). They look like straight up dinosaurs.

My grandfather used to pluck them off with a 30/30 every couple mornings so us kids wouldn’t lose a toe while we were swimming.