Haha Yeah the only thing that stopped me from giving mouth to mouth were clips from the discovery channel running through my head of great whites doing double backflips launching themselves at those fake seals.

I was thinking it was a bit big for a gaff too, but i figured it wouldve been a bit low for a spear shot.. I think a shark prob munched it after the fact but that hole has gotta be from a person. Then again i don't know much about spearfishing.

Remember 10 or so years ago that Zonie speared one then claimed it attacked him? Maybe DFG should focus more on educating the public. Ignorance never works in favor of the fish. And if the goal is protecting the fish, 1 BSB alive > $20000 in revenue from fines eh?

Sad but I'm sure well fed upon. These fish are showing greater numbers, I would like to see the ban on them lifted.

I think I had one of it's buddies check me out the last time I was out, and it was in about the same area you are talking about.

I doubt a shark killed that BSB. The wound would look like it was inflicted by a chain saw if it was from a mako. Its a bit tough to see but it looks like there is an exit hole on the other side of the fish. Maybe a gaff or a spearfisher is the culprit. Mike

LOL.... I wasn't saying the shark caused the small wound.

If the black seabass was 5ft like he says that round hole is the size of your fist, too big for gaff, but too small for a mako. It also looks like the flesh in the wound was ripped out, a shark could not make that wound, like I said it looks like a bird did it to get to it's guts.

I was talking about how something ripped the whole back end off the seabass, and ate maybe a hundred pounds of it's flesh. Something big did that, and since that's exactly the way huge makos kill things it's not much of a stretch to suggest it was a mako.

Say your walking in Grizzly Country and you come up on a fresh killed elk with the whole back end from the ribs back ripped off and missing, blood all around, and say it had a small hole in the lower chest cavity.

I suppose you could stand around, take pictures and conjecture if that hole was made from a bullet, like maybe someone poached that elk, left it there and whatever ate it just happened to find it shortly afterwards.

Me... I’m the simple type, that when he sees lightning, readies for thunder. And takes the thunder if it comes as part of the same fn’ storm.

In other words I'd get the hell out of the woods before that Grizzly that killed that elk came back and found me next to his kill and ripped me in half out of some need to protect the thing, or just plain viciousness, because all that dead flesh has got him all riled up.

Personally I've spent a lot of time offshore chumming, and fishing for sharks. We're in a nursery area so the number of small sharks to big ones is something like hundreds to one. So when something dies and floats around out there it's almost always found by small sharks first that chew off it's fins, rip out it's gills, and generally put a ton of small bite marks all over it without taking too much flesh. The birds come to and peck the hell of it as well cutting holes in the gut to get too internals, pulling off scales and eating it's organs pecking it's eyes out etc...

Take a look at this photo again. http://www.bigwatersedge.com/bwevb/a...0&d=1343229984

Notice how the whole back end has been chewed off, but the rest of it is intact? It's fins are not chewed on, it's not pecked to hell, no seals have messed with it, overall it's in pristine condition.

http://www.bigwatersedge.com/bwevb/a...1&d=1343230140

In fact with the exception of that hole in the gut (probably made by a bird) the only damage to it is that it's whole ass end is completely gone, removed by something that was able to quickly rip it in half the way a halibut can chomp a sardine. Sharks especially makos rip off the tails when they are attacking live fish, when they feed on carcasses or dead fish they usually go for the mid section and abdominal cavity.

I don't see any jaw, or bite marks on that fish at all. If that fish had been killed by a gaff or spear, and just floating around out there chances are it would of been completely messed up by smaller sharks before anything came along that was big enough to cleanly rip off it's tail. That thing looks fresh and relatively un-messed with except for that fact it's missing it's whole back end. I've seen big dead fish like that before but you only see it when they are freshly killed by big sharks. It could of been a white or mako but with the way the tail is ripped off I'd go with a big Mako.

Like this Marlin learned the hard way..
http://bluewatermag.com.au/wp-conten...-plunge_01.jpg
".....Once the huge mako got a grip on the marlin’s tail it showed its full might by crunching down and then rolling to get full leverage and snapping the tail clean off in a split second. I still remember watching awestruck as blood erupted from the marlin as the shark severed all of its arteries. The water quickly clouded with billowing plumes of an eerie red....."


That's the way big Mako's feed.

Take it or leave it.

I'm just saying that if I found that fish in that condition I wouldn't of stuck around. I know the sound of thunder, so I know enough to avoid the storm :D


Jim