The one that got away 3/15/15 Capitola

Today, the one that got away was me.

Piscean and I launched from the Capitola wharf by 8am in pursuit of an early season Halibut.  The conditions were remarkably calm.  A slight breeze first thing in the morning quickly gave way to warm morning sunshine. It was balmy and warm and almost felt like a summer evening. We slowly trolled bounce ball rigs out to where birds could be seen working bait balls which were boiling against the surface.  This peaceful morning serenity was about to be dramatically interrupted. 

We had just adjusted our trajectory so as to troll parallel to the shore line, more or less in line with the Cement Ship. Sean was at my left side, about 25 feet away keeping similar pace. I was focused on my rod, feeling the weight skip across the bottom in 60 feet of water as we trolled in silence. All at once there was a firm blow to the front of my kayak, sufficient to lift the bow up out of the water. At that same instant, on my left side, the water exploded as a shark breached through the surface.  The top half of its back cleared out of the water. I could clearly see the head, dorsal fin and quite a long portion of its back as it made reentry back into the water.  The tail was the last thing I saw, pumping back and forth several times, it kicked up a considerable volume of water and spray into the air, and my face.  The shark tore back into the foamy frothy water it had just stirred up.  Then it was silent, just as it was one moment ago.  The entire encounter lasted all of one second.  The shark had already reentered the water and was gone by the time my brain was even able to compute what had just happened. 

My assessment of the encounter goes like this.  The shark took notice to our presence, committed to an attack, began to execute an attack, and then changed its mind at the last moment.  With too much momentum and velocity it was unable to avoid colliding with me.  I don’t even really consider this an attack; more like an accidental collision. A scary fucken accident.

Here is the most interesting part.  About 15 minutes prior to the encounter, I had deployed the GoPro and fins on a float. I attached a flasher immediately above the camera to act as a teaser and attract fish to the camera to be filmed. The camera was not attached to my kayak, but it was drifting freely.  My intention was to stay in the vicinity of the camera as I fished the area, and retrieve the camera later. Very shortly after deploying the camera the encounter took place. After the encounter, Sean and I immediately rafted up and just hung out for about 30 minutes and talked about what we just saw.  By this time the camera had drifted about 150 yards away.  We decided to head in, so we made our way back to the camera to retrieve it and head in.  Upon coming home to review the footage, I discovered a pretty rough grainy image of what appears to be a shark. (at 0:07)  The scary part is that the shark footage occurred as I was activity retrieving the camera; about 30 minutes after the encounter.  The damned shark was still right there with us after all that time!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-xVBR7ak5M&feature=youtu.be

Glad everything was ok!

Wow! Amazing that the shark was still curious after all of that...

Holy shit matt!! glad  you both are ok .... crazy!

Thank you for the detailed report, and WTG on the vid!  Glad you guys are OK.   

Wow it's pretty early for that kind of unwelcome action. Glad you & Sean didn't suffer anything more than the bump!

Thank God y'all are safe, way to hold your composure, & live to fish another day!

I wasn't that lucky.  Thats where I got the tooth on my picture.  Wedged in my kayak after a GWS bit it and threw me in the water.

Wow it's pretty early for that kind of unwelcome action. Glad you & Sean didn't suffer anything more than the bump!

May actually not be that early. There are quite a few seal pups in the monterey bay now. Glad your ok Mike. What a story.

Alex

I'm glad that went well for you!!

Glad you got away, and thanks for sharing that report.  very scary.  I guess no pinniped rookery is safe, any time of year.  man.  too much

Holy hell! 57fishy and I fished capitola for halibut yesterday. Glad this story had a happy ending. I bet your adrenaline shot through the roof!

Glad you guys are ok. Damn...sharks.

Damn.......

....and THAT is why I don't fish up there.  Full of sharks!  Lol.  Glad everyone is alright