Shark Sighting

mola mola that close to shore?

Great pics, whatever they're of!

Friggin' Mola Mola rolled up on us one time at Fort Ross. All I saw was a small fin headed straight for me. I called out to my friends and was like - "Guys, don't panic but there is a small shark coming right at me."

My friend just started saying, "What do you mean small? How big is it? How big is it?..."

I just said, "I don't know!! It just doesn't look too big!"

Then, just like in Jaws, the fin went under as it got close to my yak. I looked down and it was a GD sunfish. It was cool, though. It swam up to all three of our kayaks and did circles under each one as if it were checking them out. Then it just continued on its way.

that's so cool..i had no idea that they came close to shore, i've only seen them way way out

Definitely not whitey... could be mola or sea lion doing the flipper out of water thing.

I saw two HUGE ones doing a dance inside the SC Pier they drew quite a crowd

I netted the smaller of a pair (keeping it in the water) to check it out. That little rear flipper really started going, so I dipped the net and let him go before I took a swim.

that's so cool..i had no idea that they came close to shore, i've only seen them way way out

I was fishing off the coastguard jetty in Monterey when one came all the way into the harbour, circled round in ~5 FOW among the yachts and then headed back out. Amazing.

Definitely not whitey... could be mola or sea lion doing the flipper out of water thing.

I thought sea lion perhaps too.....the last poic the fin looks sorta bent, like a flipper

Allen

We've seen Molas up at Bean Hollow too, little ones.
I'm not convinced that the pics are a Mola, but I'm not convinved they're of a GW either. The second pic is odd in that you can see what looks like a second fin & part of a side or back? Not sure. I don't necessarily get concerned by one fin, but two might give me pause.
I did see an elephant seal last year off Davenport. The thing was huge, easily as long as my T140, with an eye like a baseball. I was alone, but I still muttered "Dayy-um, that's one big #########ker".

I was fishing Friday through Monday at different points off of Fort Bragg, Caspar, and Russian Gulch last weekend. Both by boat and yak.  There were sealion pods with their fins sticking up everywhere.

I'm pretty sure what you saw were sealions.  They do this for temperature regulation when they're resting.  It's the place where the blood flows closest to the skin, so they can pick up some heat that way - or cooling, I can't remember.

Dave