LJ 9/27: Fun Shark - Kayak Fishing Adventures on Big Water’s Edge

Salty · 09-27-2020, 02:55 PM

Was a pretty slow day out there. Didn't see any YT action this time, but was trolling a mac on a carolina rig just off the bottom in about 60' when something started ripping line off my Speedmaster. Could tell right away it as not a yellow because the runs were WAY more powerful and about 10 times longer. Had my fingers crossed for a fat WSB, but when I finally got it to color, I could see it was a shark of some kind. Turns out it was a Soupfin shark. Knew it was too big to fit in the cooler in the truck, but I didn't really intend to harvest it. Got it to the side of the yak for a quick picture and was going to cut the line, but it made a hard turn and wrapped the line on the drive and almost submerged the bow of my kayak with a final run before it pulled the line. It was pretty gnarly feeling him slamming the bottom of the kayak like that... thought I was going under for a second. Also, had a flyline out when it was hooked and this guy spun me around so much it was a tangled mess on my main line. Tried a couple times to untangle it, but this was definitely a 2-hand fight and I couldn't safely reach over and grab the line at any time. So I just dealt with it and my buddy came over to grab the other rod and cut the tangles out. Was able to save the rest of that line plus my greenback too, so 100' of braid didn't get thrown into the drift!

Not what I was going for, but hey, that fight was fun as hell and I'd do that again any day of the week if I could!

09-27-2020, 02:55 PM	#1
Salty Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2020 Location: Huntington Beach, CA Posts: 424	LJ 9/27: Fun Shark Was a pretty slow day out there. Didn't see any YT action this time, but was trolling a mac on a carolina rig just off the bottom in about 60' when something started ripping line off my Speedmaster. Could tell right away it as not a yellow because the runs were WAY more powerful and about 10 times longer. Had my fingers crossed for a fat WSB, but when I finally got it to color, I could see it was a shark of some kind. Turns out it was a Soupfin shark. Knew it was too big to fit in the cooler in the truck, but I didn't really intend to harvest it. Got it to the side of the yak for a quick picture and was going to cut the line, but it made a hard turn and wrapped the line on the drive and almost submerged the bow of my kayak with a final run before it pulled the line. It was pretty gnarly feeling him slamming the bottom of the kayak like that... thought I was going under for a second. Also, had a flyline out when it was hooked and this guy spun me around so much it was a tangled mess on my main line. Tried a couple times to untangle it, but this was definitely a 2-hand fight and I couldn't safely reach over and grab the line at any time. So I just dealt with it and my buddy came over to grab the other rod and cut the tangles out. Was able to save the rest of that line plus my greenback too, so 100' of braid didn't get thrown into the drift! Not what I was going for, but hey, that fight was fun as hell and I'd do that again any day of the week if I could! Attached Images