Messages

31

Salt Water Shore Fishing Reports / Re: Joined the Club 2/26/19

« on: February 27, 2019, 11:53:38 AM »

Damn incredible job! I gotta stop bass fishing and get back out on the sand. Or at least go for a PCH drive next Tuesday and look for headlamps 

32

Salt Water Shore Fishing Reports / Re: Cold, Windy and Rainy (2/21)

« on: February 21, 2019, 10:08:23 AM »

damn you are on them! gonna give it another try next week

33

Salt Water Shore Fishing Reports / Re: Two for Five (2/12)

« on: February 13, 2019, 10:31:14 AM »

Damn nice! After this front I gotta get back out there and keep grinding. I definitely deserve a bunch of skunks after last fall but hopefully it'll turn around soon.

34

Salt Water Shore Fishing Reports / Extremely Frustrating Night 2/11

« on: February 12, 2019, 10:55:33 AM »

I normally don't post reports from skunkings but last night was such a mess that I figured I ought to describe it. After a rough couple of months where I hadn't had much time to hit the surf or fish for much other than the occasional Spottie session, I finally. decided to head back out and give sharking a try. I hadn't been able to find any Macks for bait anywhere (it seems like I catch a few whenever I'm fishing for anything else, but always have trouble finding them when I need some) and even struck out trying to catch a few small bat rays. I instead caved in and bought a couple from Zion market. I've never liked using the grocery store macks; they always seem too clean and not slimy/bloody enough but I tried juicing them up with some pro cure to add some extra scent. Showed up to my first spot I did well at last year at around 7:30pm. I don't know if the beach had lost a lot of sand since last fall or something, but within ten minutes I hung up and lost BOTH rigs on BOTH rods. Two brand new rigs I had tied earlier that day, worth probably $40 in total gear between the hooks, wire, sputniks, swivels, rub leader, and about 200 total yards of freshly spooled mono (for some. reason both rigs broke off close to the shore). Words don't describe how frustrated I was. I respooled both of the reels and hastily tied up a few new rigs before recasting. Almost immediately I recognized the dreaded familiar pulling of salad fouling up the line. There was almost no salad on the beach but for some reason I couldn't keep a bait in the water for more than a minute before it started to get dragged around and I would need to haul in 40lbs of soggy dead weight. I finally gave up after being at the spot for over 2 hours and maybe having my lines in the water for 10 minutes of that time.

I then moved to another popular spot a bit south and found that the sand had disappeared as well. It was a struggle even finding somewhere to stick my sand spikes in; I could only push them through a few inches before they hit solid rock and wouldn't go any further. I cast out both of my lines again and although there was no salad, the current at the spot was ripping and still pulling line off the clicker within minutes. Add a couple horrible backlashes on top of everything and it was no time at all before I threw in the towel. Possibly my most frustrating session to date, and one that left me with absolutely no clue what's going on or where to go from here. I can live with putting in time and catching no fish, but not even being able to really fish and spending the whole time battling conditions and gear issues is another story. Very frustrating and thought I'd update.

35

Salt Water Shore Fishing Reports / Re: Shaking the Rust Off (1/30)

« on: January 31, 2019, 11:34:27 AM »

Great job! Looks like things are picking up again. I can relate to the frustration of losing multiple sharks in a row; it’s especially frustrating since you never know when your next chance’ll be. Glad you guys got multiple opportunities.

36

Fishing Talk / Re: How are you staying warm?

« on: December 06, 2018, 07:30:08 PM »

I personally think it's about time for me to upgrade from the jeans, sneakers, and long underwear but they work for now.

37

Salt Water Shore Fishing Reports / Re: Got my 1st

« on: November 26, 2018, 12:30:48 PM »

guess conditions up there are a lot better! hopefully things will calm down over here soon. great catch and congrats on the first tope shark

38

Salt Water Shore Fishing Reports / Re: Voting for First Fall Sevengill (11/6)

« on: November 07, 2018, 09:07:11 AM »

Nice! Loving the variety! Still looking for my first Shovelnose, of all species haha.

39

Salt Water Shore Fishing Reports / Re: Lots of Leopards

« on: November 02, 2018, 09:04:23 PM »

Sick.. Leopards gotta be one of the coolest looking sharks.. Aye and honestly you never know about the one that got away.. The last Leo I caught fought harder the both soups.. The mystery will remain..

I agree that they can fight crazy hard, especially in that really skinny water. I've also noticed that they seem to release more easily than most other sharks; I've never had one that got disoriented or had trouble getting back out.

Best way I’ve found is to drag them backwards (quickly, as they can’t breathe while they’re doing this) outwards until you’re in between knee and thigh deep water and swing them around. If they don’t swim off then moving their tail back and forth in the water in a swimming motion usually does the trick. Watch out for sevengills, they’ll turn around and be able to bite you!

Ya.. I definitely feel you on that one.. My releases haven't exactly been "graceful".. I think I need a mentor.. Haha..

40

Salt Water Shore Fishing Reports / Re: Lots of Leopards

« on: November 02, 2018, 10:15:20 AM »

Sick.. Leopards gotta be one of the coolest looking sharks.. Aye and honestly you never know about the one that got away.. The last Leo I caught fought harder the both soups.. The mystery will remain..

I agree that they can fight crazy hard, especially in that really skinny water. I've also noticed that they seem to release more easily than most other sharks; I've never had one that got disoriented or had trouble getting back out.

41

Salt Water Shore Fishing Reports / Re: Lots of Leopards

« on: November 02, 2018, 10:13:50 AM »

Very nice indeed, I haven't caught a leo in almost 2 years   

come down to SD!

42

Salt Water Shore Fishing Reports / Lots of Leopards

« on: November 01, 2018, 04:58:49 PM »

The last month has been really productive for surf kitties in SD. I found a spot they congregate in pretty regularly and nearly every outing has resulted in a hookup. All of the leos have been really good quality, with a 4-5ft average. Hooked one that was either an absolute monster or just really amped up that took me all the way to the knot and rubbed me off 20 feet away from the beach once I had gotten all my line back. Was thinking maybe a stray soupie but the fight was pretty leopard-like. I haven't had the time to fish for very long stretches at a time so my sessions have been anywhere from half an hour to two hours usually. Nice to be able to catch sharks without being out there all night!

I've mainly been fishing with leftover gear/rigs from last spring but with the reports of soupies being around it's time to get back in shape. Probably would have landed that monster if I had been using a 100lb rub leader instead of one I made by doubling up 50lb mono. Catching fish with old, scrapped together gear feels resourceful and satisfying but losing fish because of old, scrapped together gear makes you feel like an idiot haha.

photos are here (I posted some on the fb page): https://kamwalsh.smugmug.com/Leopard-Sharks/

43

Fishing Talk / Re: Cabo bound

« on: September 15, 2018, 09:17:44 PM »

Good luck on both your trip and on the job hunt Mike. Feel free to hit me up to fish anytime once you're back; I just got back from AK and am looking to head back out again.

44

Salt Water Shore Fishing Reports / Re: 2 day report (14JUN2018 - 15JUN2018)

« on: June 17, 2018, 03:15:01 PM »

Great job! Glad to see that you're back on them.

45

Salt Water Shore Fishing Reports / Re: I'm going Batty (11JUN2018)

« on: June 13, 2018, 02:16:58 PM »

Always good fishing with you mike! I didn’t stay for very much longer at all; more critter bites and that was it. Never a bad thing to catch a big fish though, winged or not.