January is usually a slow month for surf fishing. The water is cold, and the sharks haven't moved into shallow water yet to feed and spawn. Nonetheless, I wanted to get some practice sessions in because I would be going to Africa in March, and a few days of our trip would be dedicated to surf fishing for sharks. My friend Marc was in town in the middle of the month, and he also wanted to try for sharks, so we gave it a shot while he was here. We didn't catch anything (sorry Marc).
Fast forward to April... I'm back from Africa (the trip was a resounding success), and San Diego is starting to warm up. I decided I wanted to catch one more good-sized soupfin or sevengill shark before I semi-retired, and I wanted to do it with some of the lessons I learned in Africa. This included short leaders and lighter braid main line, which meant I could get away with a smaller spinning reel. I tried a couple of times in April, usually fishing with Josh or Emerson, but still no shark.
One thing we experienced in April was a grunion run, which is an event that occurs at high tide for a few days around the full moon. Grunion are in the silverside family and share a subfamily with jacksmelt and topsmelt. Unlike their less interesting cousins, they come out of the water to spawn! Grunion will follow a wave as it washes up the beach, strand themselves on the wet sand, spawn, and then catch another wave back into the ocean.
During certain months you're allowed to collect grunion by hand to use as bait or food, but April isn't one of those months, so I took a few photos without handling them.
California Grunion (Leuresthes tenuis)
In April I finally hooked up with something decent in the surf. I remember it forcing me to walk down the beach quite a ways in order to land it. It wasn't a shark though...
The fish on the other end of my line ended up being a decent sized bat ray, not the shark I was hoping for. Nonetheless it was still exciting to do battle with something large and come out victorious.
California Bat Ray (Myliobatis californica)
I tried once more for sharks in April, but that night the only monsters on the prowl were California spiny lobsters, which sadly I had to let go. They looked delicious!
In May my persistence finally paid off. We had an unplanned gathering of prehistoricsoul forum members one night - Steve, Jim, Chris, Josh, Nate, and Emerson were there, and Marc was visiting from Michigan again. It was a slow night, and by 11pm it was down to just a few of us. I put on my last bait, a small mackerel sliced open and secured to the hook with bait thread. To my surprise, it only took a minute or two for something to pick it up! I let the fish take line for a few seconds and then clicked off the baitfeeder and loaded up the rod. Fish on! Eventually we got it in the wash and saw that it was a nice soupfin, and Josh jumped in the water to grab its tail.
Soupfin Shark (Galeorhinus galeus)
I'm really happy with how well we worked as a team - taking a quick measurement with the tape measure, posing for a few photos, and then getting the shark back in the water. She taped out at 73 inches, an inch longer than my previous PR and definitely fatter! It felt good watching her swim away into the night.
Next year I'll probably only go shark fishing if a friend is in town and wants to try for their first leopard or soupfin or sevengill. Or maybe I'll get the itch to do battle with another shark of my own. Either way, it's been a really cool experience learning how and when and where to fish for big sharks in San Diego.
