6 hour fish lost to shark :(

[SFLMAN]

We hooked up at 9:00 Saturday 200' bait gets hit hard fish runs staight up toward the boat.Loyd reels up the slack line and gets tight.The first hour goes by quick and we are not sure of the size of the fish when we bump the drag up at the two hour mark. We get him up to where we can see the LP around 100 feet below the boat.At around three hours of up and down fight he comes to the surface and jumps about 20-30' from the boat and Id say he was between 200-300lbs The video man was asleep but we could see the base of the bill was thick and he was long.We start the boat and run down the fish for the next hour and Loyd tires The next fisherman Isnt up to the fight and the fish is down again for the next hour.When I get the rod its already 2am.I wench him to within 20 feet of the boat and he sounds once again 125-150' down. We are getting closer to boating this fish When I feel him get nervous :shock: with a few shakes of his head he burnes the line off the reel fo 15-20 seconds then another shorter run and we knew it was over :cry: We never saw the Shark but Im sure he was big cut through the 300lb leader about 5 feet below the LP 3:15 We pack it up 16 miles to the bay and it sucked big time!!!

[RiskTaker]

SFLman:

At least you got to keep your electrolume. :idea:

Sorry to hear about your anti-climactic adventure but you at least had a memorable event . Were you the guy on VHF 72 saying you had a sizable fish on? Never heard much more on the VHF after 10 p.m. although did not have the ear to the radio all night.

It is only a shame the shark did not get a tail bite on the swordfish instead of a piece of nylon, then you may have had a chance to get him closer to the boat where you could have repelled the shark a little better while hoisting into the boat.

[Mike]

Man thats a tough break. You'll get em next time.

Mike

[jerry]

Wow, great post. Sorry to hear the outcome. Go get em again.

[Anonymous]

Bummer, I have never lost a fish to a shark. If it should happen, I hope I at least hook the toothy critter.

[J.P Freeman]

if i loose a fish after a 20 minute fight, i am pissed, 6 hours, man, sorry to hear that.

[SFLMAN]

I'd trade the LP for a few Swordfish steaks!!!A friend of mine told me that once u hook a sword if u leave a bait in while u fight the fish u wont get another hit any truth to what he says?I left a bait in on a jug 100 or so feet behind the boat untill i saw how big the fish was then reeled it in so we wouldnt lose the fish we had hooked.It was back there for about 2 hours untouched.

[FinalPoint]

Not true at all!!!!

[RiskTaker]

SFlman:

I hear you man: trade swordfish steaks for the EL. Unfortunately, when it is all in the same basket, it is usually all or nothing. (you just skimped by, pardon the effort.)

I have lost most all of the terminal tackle before which includes a swordfish tangled up in some way, but not the rod/reel and angler at the far end of the business end, depending on your perspective. Good show that everything did not take a dive !

So you will go fishing another day, hopefully rested up after a 5 hour battle or so. I hope you do not have to deal with political temporalities.

Hey, I just wonder if it is scary to do a night dive in the stream, while swordfishing and a little bit of chum in the water? I guess it depends on your vantage point!

P.S. - I Just saw JAWS the movie from when I was a Kid. Hell, that will make the paranoid afraid of mullet schooling in a canal. Oh, a marauding Jack will close the beaches for weeks. irat:

[hannaman]

It could of been a large Mako the entire time. That happened to me once. I had on a huge fish that was coming close to dumping the spool going straight down below the boat. As my rod was doubled over it just sprang back up straight. When I reeled it up my line was cut clean about 8 feet above the hook. The guys from LMR mentioned that Mako's will continue to eat their way up the leader and keep chewing. Their teeth are not set up like rows of Wahoo teeth, their more scattered like a Barracuda's if you understand what I mean. But you'll never know. That's what will keep you coming back. :!:

[SFLMAN]

Cary it was a Sword for sure we saw him twice even had the LP above the water once. I think two things went wrong at that point The angler on the rod never fought a big Sword and our leader was way too long.The lite was on one side of the boat and the fish was on the other side of the boat jumping.I fish with a wind-on and my buddy has double line with a long leader.

[RiskTaker]

SFLman:

It sounds like you just provided another testimonial for the wind-on leader preference.

(Of course we always have the option to hand-leader the fish if we choose to. But in the meantime the angler possesses so much more control over the fish with the wind-on when things get close.)

After reading and seeing people's preferences on this forum for over a year now, a wind-on leader is the way I choose to have my terminal set-up.

I am even plying the waters with a full spool of hollow core spectra (130#)going straight to 60 ft. of #200 mono wind-on leader (by way of finger trap, serve and glue - a knotless connection which should go 100%). This is a new configuration for me so I need about a year or so to provide good feedback on this setup. The reason I chose 60 ft. is because it is about 10 armlengths and this would allow you to cut the line back a few times, due to any end chafing, before you need to replace the nylon mono.

My biggest mystery now is to determine where the weakest link is: I would have to guess it to be one of the crimps on the baited leader or the finger trap connection or the angler holding the rod.

But that's Ok if your buddy doesn't not get a wind-on for the next time. It is just that you could be in exactly the same predicament the next time if he is the one on the fish.

Hopefully it is your turn next time. Good luck.

[BillyTine]

As Quint said in JAWS "ya lose one, ya rig one". this has been true for me more than once, and I bet the next one is bigger. (and you'll get that one in the boat)



I pray that I may live to fish.......
Until my dying day.
And when it comes to my last cast,
I then most humbly pray:
When in the Lord's great landing net
And peacefully asleep
That in His mercy I be judged
Big enough to keep