Inshore Sharks

[Billfish715]

We spent a few hours fishing around the Axel Carlson Reef yesterday with limited success. Rock Bottom had them dialed in though, but we never got on his drift line and weren't as patient. When we saw serious splashes about a half mile offshore of us, we went out to check out the excitement. What we found were Spinner Sharks harassing the schools of chub mackerel which were everywhere. These sharks were coming out of the water and spinning before they splashed down.

The activity attracted a flock of storm petrels much like when tuna are around. We quickly rigged up for both tuna and sharks. The Shimano Stella with the Ocea plug did not draw a strike, but the 80# fluoro leader with the 8/0 circle hook and a piece of chub mackerel got slammed as soon as it hit the water? The little Torium reel combined with the Trevala rod was the perfect match for these powerful sharks. At times there were several other Spinners swimming with the hooked fish. To say it was exciting is an understatement. My wife got in on the action and deftly put a hurtin' on some 90 to 100 pound class fish. Several broke off when their tails nicked the mainline on their runs straight away from the boat.

I'm sure the schools of mackerel attracted all of the sharks and we did follow the bait slicks for long distances. All of the while, there were sharks leaping and spinning out of the water. I did manage to get some video of it but finding when a shark would jump was tough. The circle hooks did their job as all the fish were hooked in the corner of their mouths and released with the help of a long handled hook release. How many sharks there were is anyone's guess but they stretched for miles and they were in schools of from five or six to over a dozen.

I'm glad we passed on the fluke and instead were a part of something unique, memorable and eventful. When you consider we were less than five miles off the beach was incredible. If the media ever gets wind of this, beach badge sales will definitely be fewer.

By the way, the shark picture in the other thread might be a Spinner. It looked just like the ones we were catching.