Quote:
Originally Posted by jhook
I like the blurry shots. It looks like some sort of mythical creature, like the Loch Ness monster.
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Yeah they are pretty funny. I shot those with my vest mounted cam, and I was trying to get some shots but I was a little hurried and honestly a little intimidated. He's just come up in those pics, and once on top he just turned and came straight at me. I put my foot out to stop him because I was afraid he'd freak out slam into the kayak and knock me out of it, at the time I was like holy shit what am I going to do with this thing.
It's funny the kinds of things that go through your head in a situation like that. He'd towed me well off the island and it' was getting dark.
That's prime full sized adult Mako territory out there, and right before dark is the time they like to feed. I was totally concerned that a big 800 pound or better Mako was going to come up and attack him. I've seen them out there killing swords, and I know several guys that have got them there, and it was the perfect time of year for them to be there.
I tried to get the hook out but he kept biting my hand, and I finally said screw this and cut him off tight to the jaw. Then I had to get him to roll back over. My usual MO is to grab them at the narrow point of the tail and turn them over, but that narrow part was over ten inches tall, so I couldn't even get my hand a 1/4 of the way around it. I tried to roll him over a variety of ways. Every time I tried to grab his jaw he'd literally almost pull my arm out of the socket, and at on point I thought he'd broke my wrist. After while he just swam around me in circles not allowing me to get close to him.
There was NO WAY!! I was going to leave that fish floating so finally out of desperation I paddled right at him, pushed his huge belly sideways with both hands almost falling out of the kayak in the process and which point he first went on his side then rolled over and took off. As soon as he was right side up he was gone, made a huge splash that soaked me too
After that I was jacked, but when I was taking those pics I was pretty nervous. My take is that if you hook them you then have to be responsible for them. There is no problem with fighting them to your yak and releasing them if your are willing to put in the time and do it right. I cringe every time I hear one of those guys that say just cut them off. Leaving a fish like that trailing a bunch of line is just a recipe for disaster.
Just my take though.
Jim