Shelter Cove Skunk and GWS Sighting 9/5

Launched first light hoping for a quick chrome pickup near the moorings but no luck, we peddled around the bait balls in the harbor but no action so continued down towards the CG buoy on a tip that bait was there and birds working. Made it down and saw some promising marks but no takers, maybe just one boat had lost a fish.

Later a boat called out some fish further south and the fleet (+rob) headed down there, (a 30# was later reported) we stuck near the beach and landed some hali, ling and RF. I lost a nice hali due to a missed gaff strike just taking the line out of its mouth :\

I wanted to find more bait to troll so I left my buddies at the beach and went straight out to 70' of water near the CG buoy again, promising marks and bait up top and bottom so I was trolling in between with a silver dodger and a cutplug. Wanted to check my rubber band so pulled up my gear and the nose of a large dark mass was swimming behind it. He swam under my yak and lined up next to me. Freaked out a bit I cant remember all that happened, just remember how dark his top was and he had a white scar on his dorsal fin. He was maybe just short of my outback but just as wide (10-12' x 3')... his topside was such a deep dark grey super unsettling to see that under the surface while watching my gear come up. Held my rod and cutplug with one hand and steered with my other and just kept slowly heading towards the beach. He followed for a bit then split off, the landlord just escorting me off his property, It actually played out very similar to that coho kids recent video of a shark checking him out. Didnt have the courage to get my camera out just focused on staying in the boat lol. I was a little shell shocked when I was retrieving my gear and would jump at the site of seaweed caught on my hooks.

Radio'd to my buddies what happened and that I was heading to them, probably sounded a lil choked up. Boaters were dicks humming the jaws soundtrack, my buddies were also dicks mocking my sun faded mango hobie that looks a little more yum yum yellow then it did 2 years ago. Just worked on breathing normal and slowing my heart rate down. I remember thinking that at 50 fow that he could just lunge up from the deep lol. Met them at 30 fow and felt safe near the coast, enough to continue fishing.

Exciting, 3/10 would not recommend.

Fudge... Glad you came back unscathed, skunk and all.  I'm still waiting for my turn to have an inspection.  Good to be out with friends

Yikes! I would be pretty freaked out by the follow for sure.

scary stuff. Glad it turned out ok!

sheesh!  glad all turned out well

Thank you for the report.
Glad I finished tuning my Shark Shield with the help of Lucky13.

Paul

One day I will learn to be more excited about seeing the landlord, just like the master himself  ..... 

"Coho Kid" is a fantastic nickname

Glad you passed the inspection! Had one follow me last year too. I felt like retracting my legs and nuts into my torso. Also do not recommend lmao

Thanks for the report, Yaad. Glad it was an inspection and not an incident.

I’m not sure why we (me, too!) tend to feel safer in shallower water, statistics don’t seem to bear that out.

Fun read. George + Yaad. Good combination.

Thanks for the report, Yaad. Glad it was an inspection and not an incident.

I’m not sure why we (me, too!) tend to feel safer in shallower water, statistics don’t seem to bear that out.

Interesting, as we got shallower at Bolinas one cannot suddenly decide it’s less sharky here, they certainly cruise behind the surf lines…

Yaad!  That ptsd seeweed, dang, I’ve made myself jump by my mind games more than often…be well and never surrender!

Glad to hear there was minimum interest from Mr WS.   Welcome to the club.

Bushy

Bet those boaters didn’t get limits 
Don’t let those lames get to you.

Thanks for the report, Yaad. Glad it was an inspection and not an incident.

I’m not sure why we (me, too!) tend to feel safer in shallower water, statistics don’t seem to bear that out.

Interesting, as we got shallower at Bolinas one cannot suddenly decide it’s less sharky here, they certainly cruise behind the surf lines…

Good point, a surf zone like that, all senses up and running. We certainly know of Threshers and other smaller sharks in the shallows at The Cove, but errantly presume that a VW bug sized WS is not gonna swim by or consider me for a check that close-in.

A resident there seems to have a couple regular hangouts.