Official GWS Thread

Just checked back with this thread and had to give my props to John McCosker as well. I had a very nice phone conversation/interview with him in 1992 while doing my thesis. He was a big help to me and was very friendly to a noob college student researching population dynamics of GWS.
-Sean

Dux sounds good for sat... a good day to eat or be eaten. Anyone game?

hopefully cafecraig will post his encounter with a GWS here, or somebody will put a link to his Bean Hollow report, (I am too lazy)

J

Cafecraigs GWS encounter was  great, I first heard it The day after he saw it.

He told us, in person on the water (Brian, Tim, John, and myself) Just after we launched at Bean Hollow and grouped up just past the surf.

He recommended, that if we saw one to keep still, paddle out of the water.  CafeCraig, and Scott head out to deep water, 4 of us head south. John and Tim in the lead, myself in the middle and newbie Brian bringing up the rear.  After about 5-10 min of paddling Brian seemed a little quite, as I paddled with the left hand I looked back at Brian only to see his paddle out of the water and a Dorsal fin (shark) not a mol-mola about 5' to my left and pulling ahead. We called out to Tim and John. Just as they turned back to see the fin slipped under the surface, not to be seen the rest of the day.

Defiantly and experience to remember...


Craigh

What is the chance that it was not a GWS and possibly another type of shark?  I don't doubt the encounter, just want to see if there are other possibilities.  The day Joel, bill and myself were out there a thresher shark put on a show on the surface of the water.

Salmon sharks are fairly common this time of year especially near the mouths of salmon runs and look a lot like smaller great whites.

As mentioned by CraigH, I paddled with Cafecraig the day after the encounter and we talked about the encounter at some length. His description of size plus distinct border between dark grey back and white belly pretty much spells out GWS, or huge Salmon Shark (10-12 feet would put it at or above the known largest size of Salmon Shark)

Bean Hollow is a good 35 miles, if not more, from the mouth of the Golden Gate. But about 8 miles up the coast from Año Nuevo.

I'll give 5:1 odds it was Bruce, and am somewhat envious of the encounter.


Scott

There was an attack on a surfer in Florence, OR on Aug 29.  He was just sitting on his board and the GW just grabbed his foot and tried to drag him down.  He hit it with his board and it let go.  I don't usually think about sharks except when I'm sitting in my yak with my feet hanging over the side.  I won't stop doing that, but I do think about Whitey at times.

I'm no expert on sharks, heck I still carry the fish I.D chart Joel handed out. It could have been another kind of shark, but it was big, dark and seem about the same length of my Drifter.  I did have my camera, but it was stowed and I went into "Pucker" mode for a couple of moments..   

I glad I saw it, it takes the wonder out of " What would I do if I saw one."  I still going to fish the Ocean, but probably more with a buddy than by myself.

I might put some black stripe's on the bottom of my Yum-Yum yellow yak

Craigh

Pretty cool encounter!  Ano is so close that I woudn't doubt if anyone head out again this year there would be a good chance of seeing another one!
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/11/1111_021111_TVShark.html
cool article.

jason

Pretty cool encounter!  Ano is so close that I woudn't doubt if anyone head out again this year there would be a good chance of seeing another one!
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/11/1111_021111_TVShark.html
cool article.

jason

Good stuff jsell. I always love at the end of every article about GWS they have to add that they don't like humans as food .
Z

I always love at the end of every article about GWS they have to add that they don't like humans as food

Don't like humans as food eh? Well, all I can say then is they are trying pretty hard to develop an acquired taste for it

I'm just waiting for one to steal a halibut from someone at bean hollow when they're playing it at the surface waiting for a bigger net...  Get the fish, especially larger ones, out of the water ASAP and make sure you have the gear to do it.  You don't want to get bowled over by a feeding shark out there.

Further, once the shark gets excited and senses your fish struggling and maybe even tastes it, its aggression and feeding response will build. You don't want to be in that situation. Uh uh.

Get the fish, especially larger ones, out of the water ASAP and make sure you have the gear to do it.  You don't want to get bowled over by a feeding shark out there.

  Absolutely! And, once you get your fish out of the water, keep it and it's blood/gore out of the water!
I know some guys bleed their fish out on the water, but I think that's an awfully risky way to keep the catch fresh.
I don't even have the guts to use a stringer or game clip in saltwater! I throw all my fish into a cooler instead.  Paul