first person shark sightings...

It would really be interesting to see the white shark re-searchers tow around a kayak at Ano Nuevo with a game clip full of rock fish on the deck.....with the paddle blades sticking out from both sides of the yak.  

Who wants to donate an old kayak? Prefferably a yellow one....

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At this point all i could do, or think is getting my fishstringer out of the water and start paddlimg back to shore as fast as i can. I'm thinking i'm fish food!!! Then the fins went under and never seen it again. I've never was able to identify what kind of shark it was but seven gill sharks are common in the area.

Alex....I think that you were better off leaving the fish stringer behind as you as your made your way back to shore. The motion of your flippers combined with a stringer of dead bloody fish on your float tube is a sure way of attracting the "Land Lord"  

> I've never was able to identify what kind of shark it was but seven gill sharks are common in the area.

Sevengills have no dorsal fin.

I like the deep cockpit on my drifter because the tops of my legs are level with the top edge of the cockpit - so I don't feel like I'm sitting with my legs on a chopping block.

Most of my friend's who surf Salmon Creek have all seen sharks at one point or another. In fact, my buddy Mike says most of the serious cats out there don't even leave the water when one is spotted.

Man, that shark above is a TANK!  

When I see that picture, all I can think of is Bruce the shark saying "fish are friends, not food!"

Just less than 20 yrs ago, I was abalone diving out of Scott Creek.... (If you don't know it; from the beach there you can look up the coast to Ano Nuevo island. Walk that way a bit, then go out.) Back then, the ab limit was 4 and it was open in that county. (We had taken abs to 9" there before.)

I was about 120 yards off shore and my buddy was about 20 yards from me. The water was 20-25 ft deep.  The visibility was good enough that I could barely make out the light/dark patches of sand/rock while lying at the surface.  

I was resting there, watching the light/dark of the bottom, readying myself to make another dive......
.....when the sensation came upon me that Darth Vader had just walked into the room. (This was, of course, long before Vader was "humanized" and he was just supremely evil and powerful.) I looked up, and there crossing in front of me was 1/3 of a shark. I say 1/3 because, well, it was friggin big and crossing at the range of visibility so that not all of it was visible at once. I saw the middle, then the tail. And the tail wasn't moving. With small fish, you see the tail moving side to side, but this sucker was so big it looked like it was being towed, smoothly right out of sight.

Now, through this medium, I am unable (and somewhat unwilling) to convey the range and depth of my psychological/emotional experience.  But here's the short version: I got a month's worth of adrenaline in half a second. I was operating on multiple levels in parallel. My ab iron in hand was ready as a weapon. (I had a knife on the leg, but it seemed far less than the ab iron.) I headed over to my buddy, while keeping my head in constant motion...on the lookout. And during this, I was humming the theme from "Jaws." Five minutes earlier if you'd asked me for the theme, I couldn't have delivered at any price, but now, not only did I know it, I couldn't stop.

So I swam over and joined up with my buddy and we kicked in quietly. Back on the sand, I was really excited (being in my mid 20s). We got back in his truck and drove up to our "old standby" (down the cliff by the Distillery). We went out and got our abs.

A couple of weeks later, I went back to Scott creek. The same spot. This time, I only went out past the breakers to 15 feet of water. That was enough for what I needed.
 
A few days after that, the adrenaline ran out, and suddenly I was aware of the void it was leaving. And after a moment, I had closure on the emotional part.

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My wetsuit was bright blue... a fact that I feel contributed to my "escape."
How big was it? I don't know. I never saw the "business end" or all of it at once. All I can say as a gauge is that I think the tail from bottom to top was 4 foot-ish. (after considering the UW magnification).

Incidentally, years later, diving in Australia, I saw a 10' wobbegong shark. It was a small fraction of the fish I related above.

vanim

dang.

Wow, you guys are making me nervous, but, I believe all of you. I have never mentioned it before on NCKA, but I have been surfing since I was 15 years old from ocean beach all the way to Sand Dollar Beach in Big Sur.
Which leads me to my story............My self and a group of friends were surfing early morning Scotts Creek. We had been out about 30 minutes and a set came through. There were only four of us to the whole place and I didnt happen to get a wave out of that last set. So, as everyone was paddleing out from there rides, I sat quietly waiting for the next set, when about 20 yards in front of me running north to south a hugh dorsal fin slowly glides out of the surface of the water with a tracer fin following approximately 12 feet behind. By the time it had finished surfacing, it was approximately four feet tall and two and a half feet wide at the surface of the water, my estimation of the size was 20 feet, and pretty sure it was a great white. One thing that I will never forget is that it had a seal size bite out of the top part of the dorsal about two inches below the top and at the back radius of the dorsal, ( so, what I would like to know is........WHO is biting this guy ).
 So, after it submerged, I quickly came out of my shock induced trance and ever so quietly turned and performed the most perfect paddleing inshore. I remember that later my friends said that when I passed them paddleing at that speed with no wave behind me and all I said at a loud whisper was "SHARK", that  they believed me at once and all turned and headed for the beach. Later as we got to the cars a fellow who was walking on the beach said he also saw and it was hugh, and that we were wise to leave the water.
I havent surfed there since but I have surf angled probably over fifty time and one time I hooked something on a wire leader that dragged me into the surf and removed all of my line, and I mean ALL of my line.
We all know there out there and I still surf and just dont think about it, but, all your stories brought that memory back strong as if it had happened yesterday.
Good fishing to you all and safe harbor, Chris.

It would really be interesting to see the white shark re-searchers tow around a kayak at Ano Nuevo with a game clip full of rock fish on the deck.....with the paddle blades sticking out from both sides of the yak.

Who wants to donate an old kayak? Prefferably a yellow one....


Hey Joel... if I win the Elk derby and come away with a new yak... I think my yum yum Yellow Malibu II would be a tasty morsel for Mr. Whitey.