I get this call on the raido from Captain David Gross: “Captain Tom, we’ve got a shark on with a very long tail. What kind is it? Should we try to boat it?” I think a minute and thresher shark comes to mind. Brian Gerich and Ed Stapleton, both from southern California are the anglers aboard and when they get close they clearly identify it as a thresher – they’ve seen them before. Unfortunately, the shark was hooked on a salmon rod with a 40 pound mono leader and 20 pound main line. Despite a 30 minute effort to get the fish close enough to the boat for gaffing (threshers are excellent eating), the rougly 8 food long shark eventually abraids the leader and escapes. To the best of our knowledge, only one thresher has been landed Southeast Alaska and that came from a commercial vessel. With the shark excitement over, Gerich and Stapleton returned to more normal targets and put a limit of silvers and halibut in the boat along with a king. A second king they hooked was devoured by a sea lion. If only we could pursuade the shark to dine on the sea lion, but it would take more than a thresher to do in a 2000 pound stellar sealion bull.
In a very rare occurence Brian Gerich and Ed Stapleton, fishing with Captain David Gross
Calm Window – Silvers Two at a Time
We enjoyed a brief break in the parade of windy and rain on August 29 and 30. The Fergeson/Kohler group of 8, fishing with Captains Phil Carlson and Greg Mohs fished the ocean with great success on silvers, kings, and halibut. Erika Sheffield-Stull even managed to catch two silvers at the same time. She had what all thought was a normal hookup, but when Captain Phil netted the fish, they discovered it wasn’t hooked and was entangled on the mainline. Soon it became clear that something was still swimming around on the end of the line. Phil feverishly worked to get the boated fish disentangled and when he did, Erika fought the second fish to the boat. The next day Captain Phil took his group to 700 feet for halibut with the hope of a few blackcod (sablefish). Not to be outdone, John Gates landed two blackcod at the same time, one on the forward hook, one on the trailer. Even during this calm window, there was a bit of a swell, so two of our boats fished inland on calm waters where limits of silvers and halibut along with some good kings were the rule. The action was made all the better by the glassy, windless conditions and a spectacular bubble feeding event by a group of humpback whales.