600 + pound mako

[captain john]

600+ Mako shark

Friday aboard the E SEA GOIN we had a 10 hour charter with 5 nice people who were ready to catch some dolphins, not only was it the first day of the biggest torment of this area but it was also Memorial Day week end. We started trolling in 180 feet and worked our way out to 400 feet with no luck, not even a knock down. Some of the boats that stopped inshore were catching some dolphin. I did see the weed-line when we went past it, but with so many boats out there I figured it was to hit hard. So I took a chance on going out a little deeper; over the radio I heard there was some sailfish being caught back inshore along with some dolphin. So I turned around to come back inshore and at 240 feet there was what looked like a tree floating, but as we got closer it turned out to be a porpoise that was half eaten, by what look like JAWS.

It turned out to be a 12 foot Mako shark. The charter group was in awe, but so were the mate and I. Just the shear size of this fish was enough to put goose bumps allover your body. The porpoise that he had caught and killed was full grown. We kind of felt sorry for it. But that went away when he kept coming back for a bite. We got our spread in the boat and cleared the pit. Then we pulled up next to the poor porpoise and threw out a slap of Bonita. The Mako took a look at it, but went back to his main meal. He did that two more times before he ate our offering. We had him on. We had a shark leader made up with 10 feet of 400 pound mono and 6 feet of 800 pound stainless steal cable with a 14/0 hook. The rod and reel we used was a Crowder rod and Shamio 50 two-speed. After an hour of fighting him, we had him boat side; leader in hand and fish boat side. He stayed there long enough to get some pictures and of he went. We had him leadered two more times. On the second time he rolled up until his black eye was looking right at the mate. He just looked at him with a look that said “What do you guys thing your doing.”

After almost three hours, he finally bit through the stainless steel cable. We were going to kill him if he came boat side again, we did not have a gun or flying gaff on board, I even called the other charter boats and tournament boats to see if any of them had one. A boat 20 miles away to the north had a flying gaff, but he was too far away. We rigged up a straight gaff with some rope, but after thinking it out we decided against it.
It sure would have been nice to bring it back to dock, but he will live to fight another day. Man what a fish!!!


We did have enough time left to catch 2 dolphins. The other boats also caught a few.
Kings and Bonita are plentiful around the reefs along with some cobia,cudas and an occasional sailfish.

Bottom fishing has been slow but some boats are catching some triggers, sea bass, red snapper and some smaller grouper http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i2...9/b11907ab.jpg
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i2...9/03b11c9c.jpg

[Shark Tagger]

Good work on the release.. takes just as good of a crew to release as it does to boat her... you'll get some good karma there.

[Relentless33]

Awesome fish, I read this before but never saw the pics.

[Snookmachine]

Great experience, it reminds me of a huge mako that used to bite tarpon in half in the reffs off Veracruz, Mexico.