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The original version was published on MONDAY, 19 NOVEMBER 2007
as
Sharking : Teeth Wire and deep blue Seas
Here
http://zuluscorpyon.blogspot.com/2007/11/teeth-wire-and-deep-blue-seas.html
New introduction :
We arrived at the marina and walk over the floating gang ways to the boat , there were fish swimming under the floating gangways which was a little disconcerting we hopped on board the boat. We were given a safety briefing including what to do if something happened to the boat skipper, i have to say this was scary and reassuring at the same time.
We powered out the boat coming banging down on the waves which spine jolting bang, we prepared the traces and tackle on the way out i was really trying to get into this hay im a guy and a husband this a guys dream experience right ?
Inside i felt sick , and to be true-full i was scarred and i was thinking what am i doing here …
I remember thinking it will be ok perhaps we wont hook up on anything, my apprehension was made worse because the skipper informed us that we had to have pics taken holding the sharks alive but not to worry no one had been bit so far.
In our wake dolphins bounced of the wake of the boat jumping and spinning this was amazing and cheered me up a lot, even Alex smiled under the covers in fairly sure she was thinking what the hell are we doing here to.
He then stopped the boat. and passed out mackerel fishing rods and yelled at us in a nice way to get as much bait as possible of course alex being a girl he looked after, me being a GUY i stood in the stern and reeled up string upon string of slimy mackerel and was left to unhook them and deal with them including getting a hook deeply embedded in my hand and dealing with several 15lb plus pollock which i was told were good bait size. Fortunately all the times i had fished with my dad and later with Michele had trained me well.
So covered in mackerel slime we took our places back in the cabin with me going nuts with the spray on anti-septic spray over all the little nicks and cuts knowing what the consequences of not doing could be, followed by moisturizer which got strange looks form the skipper. I had had my hair cut to a number 1 just before this trip and had a pair of evens utility pants on with the tie ups cut off and one of 20 fishing t-shirt out tackle supplier had sent us.
So yet again he " Put the hammer down " and we flew across the waves at 20 plus knots we were told, we bounced up and down on the bench, which thank god was covered with deep plastic coated foam. He stopped the boat and said right lets fish, alex and i helped each other apply lots of sun screen i looked at here she looked at me did she know what i was thinking ? . He tackled up the lines a man loving his job and in command of his domain, we stood there. He baited the big hooks with flappers these are fish with there spine removed being used as bait pushed out behind the boat on a pattern with evian bottles used as floats. When we were all set up and the bags of mashed fish hung over the side we waited.
Alex and i hung out at the tail end of the boat looking at the sea wondering what was down there the skipper looked at the horizon watching the birds the dolphins playing in the distance, he would have made a wonderful captain of the boat in jaws, our very own Quint.
Ok so here is the original Article i posted in 2007 in guy mode:
The real screamed! I was stood by the rod just bringing the other rods in i do wonder whether the fish had seen the flappers as I wound them in and had rushed down the trail to find the distance rod with its big mackerel flapper some 150 ft below the surface of the ocean. The real was emptying fast the skipper was in White Waters cabin preparing to set sail back to Milford haven and the calm waters of the marina, I picked up the rod and pushed the drag up to strike i then slammed into the fish the first strike I knew would not have set the big hook so i would down again and pumped the rod upwards again and again till the fish finished its frantic attempts at shedding the forged steel razor sharp hook and powered off once more. The skipper was now by my side strapping on my oversized butt pad and back harness the lugs snapped into the real as the fish stopped for a second and i got a chance to pump a few yards of line back on the half empty real.
For the next 30 minutes there was nothing i could do with her every time i got a few turns of line back on the real she ripped another 20 yds off then she swam up to the boat but stayed deep the skipper said wait for it she’s just coming for a look sure enough 50 or so feet down we saw a flash of blue or ‘ Colour’ as its known in big game circles i laid into her hard trying to keep her off balance the skipper looked knowingly at me as if to say ‘save your energy she’s going to do it’. As predicted a few seconds later she turned again the deep blue of her back now making her virtually invisible as she kicked her big tail and dived push a turbo charged shot of water though her big gills, she kept going she must have been virtually scrapping the bottom when at last she stopped, I put as much pressure on her as the 50lb mono would allow, the sweat at this point purring off of me but she ignored me and took off the hard won line yet again spilled from the big multiplier.
We continued this game of me pulling her 5 yards and her taking another 10 for about 30 minutes i was completely knackered at this point and i knew two things from events earlier in the day one that if i lost my patience with a big fish i would lose it and two that this was a very big fish. She made 3 more big runs each time with me fighting for every yard of line to bring her back to the boat. The forth run as about 50 yards and the skipper said now, now give her some shit son, go on lay into her so i pushed the real back up into the higher gear ratio pumped the rod till my arms burned i knew i had her she came to me with big wide shakes of her head but she had had enough, she was all in and then she was beside the boat what a beautiful sight as i touched the leader she was mine.
This was the last fish of my first sharking trip with whitewater see links below, in total over 6 days and 2 boats i boated over 3000lb in weight of sharks, i had some painful lessons when it came to tackle the main one i think being ‘these are deep water sharks you need lots and lots of line’. Andrew is a top guy if you can get out with him you should.
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It was an experience and i wont forget it and in a lot of ways i enjoyed it , but that night i cried in Alex’s arms as we lay in bed, i hurt all over my head was a mess i was totally confused with loads of different emotions flying through my head, but i was determined to be a good husband.
