Hello, my name is Omar, and I'm a rehabilitating lurker.
I've been in deep research mode while I was tied to the house by a young boy; well now he's grown enough for me to peel away and put time on the water. Thanks for all of the knowledge posted now and prior. I haven't really had anything to post because most of my questions have been asked and answered. And lets just say results on my few trips out so far have been barely enough to report back to the wife. Until this past weekend...
I had just launched and the weather was lovely, low clouds with the sun fighting its way through in spots. I was trolling and paused to change some settings on my sonar. I'd been having trouble with incorrect readings and wanted to figure the issue out. I decided to give up and continue to the intended fishing spot and said the words, "Well, this sucks!" No sooner had the sound left my mouth and my trolling rod loads intensely and the clicker starts singing. I thought maybe I'd caught something but there was no mistaking a hookup when I felt how hard and fast this thing was ripping line off the reel. I tightened the drag a bit and thumbed the spool. Long story short, 20 minutes of getting towed at 2 mph for my first sleigh ride (and I'm 250 lbs) I got my first thresher shark yakside. After the long fight I didn't want to stress him out more by pulling him out of the water...I'd already decided on a c&r for this first beast. He was tail hooked so I took the path of least resistance and unhooked my lure and let him go. I held his tail firmly moving him around to get water through his gills until he kicked hard enough to release my grip.
This was an absolute thrill. I have never had a fish pull that hard and run so fast in my life. I'm not sure who got hooked more, the shark or me...
