San Mateo coast, 10/11..."I paid my rent sir, honest!"

Sean,

You know that mojo I was talking about the other day.?? You need to "use the force Luke" and control what fish you are attracting to your yak. The key is to attract only those fishys that can be landed onto your deck and are tasty. Learn to repel those fishys that think you are tasty.

But I'm really glad that the experience ended well...

And get rid of the red kayak... The landlord hates that color....

Rich

Another red kayak?  I hope it's not an adventure too?  Anyone wants to buy a used AI?  Maybe I should paint mine.  This story is not helping me any.  Glad you are safe and cudos for being brave and not panicking. 

Sean:

I'm glad he didn't decide to give you a taste.  Usually if you see the shark he is just curious.  Maybe he was trying to ask you out on a date.  Way to stick with it. 

Sean:

I'm glad he didn't decide to give you a taste.  Usually if you see the shark he is just curious.  Maybe he was trying to ask you out on a date.  Way to stick with it. 

Yeah, knowing just a little about how these fish operate was definitely helpful. I figured I was just being scrutinized out of curiosity more than anything (unless it was amour). My main thought was I hoped the fish would be satisfied with a visual and decline to come in for some tactile investigation. When it started tailing me I got pretty sketched.

I am glad we stayed out there. It'll probably be most helpful next spring when the 2010 season starts. I'm done fishing up there for this year though.

For the record, I was paddling a tarpon 140, it is indeed red, and I didn't have a fishfinder or any fish on board.

So on the beach prior to launch Adam tells me about Ben's drive-by on Fri...  and like 5 minutes later we hear Aaron on the radio saying "Confirmed gw sighting...  just now..."  as we watch them from the beach....

At that moment part of me wanted to paddle out and SEE it...  but I have to admit a small part of me wanted to throw my stuff in the truck and go home and crawl into bed, and contemplate switching hobbies.  Golf, perhaps?

What could we do?  We laughed, hi-fived and headed out.

As we headed out Adam noted those guys seemed so far away all of a sudden...

But the line of the day came from Keo when checking in by radio later on...  His response after hearing the news?

"I'm a poor asian...  I don't have medical!!!"

Sean, you drawings are exactly what I was picturing as you described it to us, and are somehow cooler than any picture could be.

wow wow wow, glad all is well, i dont think i could have remained as calm as you sean, well it would have looked like it cause i probably would have just froze, way to grab the fear and controll it and keep fishing, cameron

Awesome.

Glad everyone had the chance to see Whitey and not get touched!

Adam and Ben. What's your story?

Sean, you's a lucky guy!! Lucky in that you got to witness an incredible predator in the flesh. Lucky also that it only wanted to get a look at you.
Talk about high adventure!!!
You just have to wonder about all the times we've been checked out and never knew it...

Sean... Great report.  I love your illustrations.  They're the next best thing to actual pics.

NCKA fishing madness will make you do crazy things like continuing to fish with your friends in the midst of the landlord.  After Dan's kayak got bit there in 2007, Frankfishing, JTF, and I stayed out and fished for 2 more hours.  Are we all frickin' crazy or what???

I would have love to have seen what you saw, but I might have crapped in my dry pants.

I'm glad to hear everyone had fun and no one got hurt.

Congrats on halibut and rockies.  That's a sweet pic of the verm, ling, and hali in Aaron's tankwell.

Did the sighting get reported to the rangers?  If it does, it might close the beach and attract crazy media attention.

As I understand it...once the white has checked you out and not acted on it.....ie. once he is milling around, the threat reduces somewhat. The Farallon Islands researchers work in 13 ft whalers and they are not that worried.
 One exception that might to re-energize him with the practice of hanging the stringer of fish off the kayak.
I am worried enough about hanging wetsuit-booty clad legs in the water and never hang fish over the side. Ooozing juice and blood has gotta be a turn-on for the big guy.
What you don't want to do is get him excited as then he gets on auto-pilot. Even pet blacktip sharks do that. They get "silly animated" after a mouthfull of something and remain turned on for awhile.
There.....from where I sit...... 30 miles from the ocean...this is all easy to say.
Steve
PS.
Ya know how they say don't talk on the phone and drive?
I got a long business phone call off Pigeon yesterday and drifted a long way with the wind. After awhile, I told the guy on the line he was gonna get me killed. He asked why.
 "Cuz Im alone now....in a kayak half a mile from my bros way off Pigeon Pt on a windy day drifting away!"
 He says...."Your what???"
 "Gotta go!" Click.



 

no one mentioned it to the ranger, and i don't think we're planning to.  we knew the risks of seeing the landlord before we headed out, its the time of the year for them.

me and aaron were joking with sean that the shark probably just wanted to come up and tell him how impressed he was with his kayak artwork 

Definitely not the time of year to head out there alone if you're afraid of sharks.  and a good idea not to keep your stringer in the water unless you want to have a visit/sleigh ride. 

bajareefer, use a bluetooth next time 

Did the sighting get reported to the rangers?  If it does, it might close the beach and attract crazy media attention.

Nah. With the state finances what they are, what ranger? I think I saw one there once this summer. The usual maintenance guys that used to come & talk with us each trip have been absent for a while.
We'll just keep the news here.  If they closed things every time someone saw one we'd be ex'ed out of the whole coast all summer.

As I understand it...once the white has checked you out and not acted on it.....ie. once he is milling around, the threat reduces somewhat.

Roger that Steve. Oddly enough, years back in '92 I did an undergrad thesis on the population dynamics of these fish, and I'll tell ya, it really helped at first. BUT when I saw the fish come right up on off the stern and clearly follow me, I started to get worried.

I may get mango color for my next yak .

I'm glad you guys liked the illustrations. Next year I'll have a camera, but hopefully that was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see a fish like that. I'm still buzzin'. Maybe it will go away after telling the story for the 1000th time. I haven't seen Dan to ask him yet .

...and yeah, I think there's an art piece or two (besides the quickie drawings) that may come from this whole thing

I might have seen the same one on Friday, very cool to see, Im not too worried about them, and after seeing him and his take on me, im less worried, wish my camera was at the ready though...
I will still bring my cooler out with me for bloody fish, it keeps the take fresh.

Negative on the report...it stays members only.I will never tell my wife.
We were in 53 feet of water over mixed sand and rock reef and there was texture on the surface from a 5-10kt S wind.The water was stained tobacco red-brown from the red tide algae.This may have been a blessing in disguise because I couldn't make out the whole shark's profile or see it's eyes.What I did witness was a very large tail swirl behind Sean's red Tarpon.Sean then announced that he had seen a shark and continued to look frantically around his kayak.I knew he was serious immediately and reeled in my line.As Sean began paddling away from the last position of the tail swirl and parallel to my kayak I saw a 6-8" dark-grey dorsal tip following slowly behind Sean's kayak about 20ft back.From the position of the dorsal and the distance to the tail swirl I would estimate the GW to be 14-15' in length. I told Ben and Sean that we need to start paddling toward shallow water.We paddled in to 30 FOW away form the shark and had no further contact.I radioed in a shark warning on 69 that was received by Eric and Adam, who were about to launch, and some of the PP crew.These ballers chose to come out and fish anyway! I was shaken by the shark sighting and had a ling and a verm in the tankwell, so I would have been cool with calling it a day,but the crew was willing to fish on.I pretty much assume I'm in some shark's territory any time I fish out there, so it didn't paralyze me at least. I'm glad I stayed because it was a cool adventure with a great crew and it allowed me to round out my triple play with a tasty 26" flatty.