Got Smoked!

[Fish-On!]

Hi guys, I 'm new to the forum. A fellow surf angler told me about this forum. I've been an avid angler both shore and offshore for many years. I hope to learn new things and also share my fishing adventures in this awesome forum. As the title of my first post says, sometimes the fish wins and we get smoked. This one was last Saturday evening at very high tide. I was fishing my favorite hole with the carolina rig, 60lb spectra mainline, 50lb mono topshot, 6oz pyramid sinker, and a short 150lb mono leader tied to a 8/0 Ahi Twist hook. I believe I was hooked to a shark by the way it fought. Folks who've seen this video say it's a bat. I guess we'll never know, another one that got away. This beast dumped alot of line from my reel; I almost got spooled. Every time I cranked that drag, it just increased its ferocity and just kept going like it's just toying with me. Just when I thought I had it stopped at almost lockdown drag and gaining some line, my 50lb topshot finally got busted. Checked the line and it had scrapes all over a section of my topshot from rubbing against the skin of the beast.

Video link of the battle: https://youtu.be/thiYG0QEMq8

[shinbob]

Too bad you didn't get to see what that monster was!

That's a beautiful reel, by the way.

[inthezone]

Hi guys, I 'm new to the forum. A fellow surf angler told me about this forum. I've been an avid angler both shore and offshore for many years. I hope to learn new things and also share my fishing adventures in this awesome forum. As the title of my first post says, sometimes the fish wins and we get smoked. This one was last Saturday evening at very high tide. I was fishing my favorite hole with the carolina rig, 60lb spectra mainline, 50lb mono topshot, 6oz pyramid sinker, and a short 150lb mono leader tied to a 8/0 Ahi Twist hook. I believe I was hooked to a shark by the way it fought. Folks who've seen this video say it's a bat. I guess we'll never know, another one that got away. This beast dumped alot of line from my reel; I almost got spooled. Every time I cranked that drag, it just increased its ferocity and just kept going like it's just toying with me. Just when I thought I had it stopped at almost lockdown drag and gaining some line, my 50lb topshot finally got busted. Checked the line and it had scrapes all over a section of my topshot from rubbing against the skin of the beast.

Video link of the battle: https://youtu.be/thiYG0QEMq8

Atleast you get to feel the pulll...is this cali coast?

[Fish-On!]

Too bad you didn't get to see what that monster was!

That's a beautiful reel, by the way.

Thanks! Yes it's a very strong reel, but the drag is very linear. It takes alot of turns of the drag knob to get to the high drag setting.

[Fish-On!]

Atleast you get to feel the pulll...is this cali coast?

Yes Socal.

[inthezone]

Yes Socal.

What bait did you use...I have never heard of a shark being caught off so cal surfs....it would been sick if u pulled one up.

[Fish-On!]

What bait did you use...I have never heard of a shark being caught off so cal surfs....it would been sick if u pulled one up.

There are different kinds of sharks you can catch in the surf all over california. You can use squid or macks. Here's a nice leopard shark I caught recently surf fishing. Quick photo and released.

[ZipperWurm]

Nice vid! That coulda been a huge ray...I've had a few break me off, lost a monster one just last week using dead squid. Did you feel it head shake at all? I can usually tell it's a ray when I don't feel it do anything but try and pull my arms off, lol

[lagunaCOCONUT]

From the video, it doesn't look like it was a batray. I have caught many mud marlins to upwards of 200lbs and I don't really remember any of them not running laterally along the shoreline or at least at an angle. Plus you can't usually feel the strokes of the wings/fins and see it in the rod. Also they are slimy all over with nothing to be able rub through 50lb mono that I know of unless you caught the line on the stinger in a weird angle. From the looks of your video, I think you hooked a big shark that wanted nothing to do with the surf line and wanted to head for deep water. With your gear set up, if that was a big Leopard, you still would have landed the fish. Who knows, it could have been a juvenile White. It's going to be one of those can't sleep at night wondering what that was kinda things for a couple nights lol. Cool that you got it on video. You worked that fish well and that's about all you can do!

[Fish-On!]

From the video, it doesn't look like it was a batray. I have caught many mud marlins to upwards of 200lbs and I don't really remember any of them not running laterally along the shoreline or at least at an angle. Plus you can't usually feel the strokes of the wings/fins and see it in the rod. Also they are slimy all over with nothing to be able rub through 50lb mono that I know of unless you caught the line on the stinger in a weird angle. From the looks of your video, I think you hooked a big shark that wanted nothing to do with the surf line and wanted to head for deep water. With your gear set up, if that was a big Leopard, you still would have landed the fish. Who knows, it could have been a juvenile White. It's going to be one of those can't sleep at night wondering what that was kinda things for a couple nights lol. Cool that you got it on video. You worked that fish well and that's about all you can do!

Thanks bud! Yup, definitely not a bat. I've hooked and landed lots of bats from the surf. Usually they'll run straight out. Once you've got them stopped, most of the time they make a U-turn and start charging towards you, making you think you lost them because of the slack line. Then once they know they're getting near the shore, they start running sideways. I've had monster bats drag me up and down the beach several times, before they finally tire out and just bed down right by the beach like a suction cup.. The only way you can pull them up the beach is to time your pull with the incoming surf. Definitely not a leo either, they give up easily.