THE OUTDOORS : POOR MAN’S MARLIN : Shark Fishing Gives Local Anglers a Chance to Challenge a Big-Game Fish at Reasonable Cost
At first, it seemed like a waste of time. The handful of fishermen aboard the Widowmaker, a Marina del Rey-based sportfisher, sat around passing time while their boat drifted aimlessly 10 miles off the coast. Their hooks were baited, dangling untouched under inflated balloons used to keep them near the surface.
The sun penetrated the sea, which seemed to support little in the way of noticeable life. The fishermen knew the waters closer to shore were filled with bass, barracuda and other summertime sport fish.
No other boats could be seen in the vicinity and Miguel Martinez’s passengers began to gaze about the horizon, seemingly discontent at the amount of time that had passed without incident. “You sure have to wait a long time,” one fisherman grumbled.
Martinez, however, knew what he was doing.
After an hour or so the “chum”--ground mackerel and blood that he generously poured over the side--began to attract sharks, and things soon took a turn for the better.
Scott Thomas, a fisherman from Hermosa Beach, noticed his balloon moving against the current; it bobbed up and down and started moving quickly toward the boat. On the advice of Martinez, Thomas reeled slowly until he had taken up the slack, and set the hook with a vengeance.
“Again, as hard as you can,” Martinez told him. Thomas obliged and set the hook solidly into the jaw of a 40-pound mako shark. Though an extremely powerful fish, this particular mako swam to the boat as if unaware of a large stainless-steel hook in its jaw. It was brought to gaff without much of a struggle.
Thomas, however, had caught what is fast becoming one of the most sought-after “big-game fish” in Southern California.
“It (the mako shark) offers a better return than marlin,” Martinez explained. “You can spend all day and not catch a marlin.” A large mako, some will say, will fight as well or better than the striped marlin caught off the Southern California coast.
The action in the immediate area picked up considerably. The fishermen aboard Martinez’s 32-foot boat--he carries up to six passengers--had their interest in shark fishing renewed by the catch.
Within minutes, there was another hookup. This time, however, it was a blue shark in the 80-pound range. Malibu resident Mark Wallace fought the fish for a good 20 minutes before it lumbered its way to the surface, twisting and turning in protest, but eventually succumbing to Wallace’s persistence and Martinez’s gaff.
Soon most of the anglers had at least hooked up with a shark--some were lost, either breaking the 40- to 50-pound test line above the 10-foot steel leader or after spitting out the bait after a brief tug-of-war with the angler.
Meanwhile, more sharks were gathering in the distance, apparently working their way up the “chum slick” that originated off the stern of Martinez’ boat.
“They always swim toward the source,” Wallace said. One of the sharks, a large blue, appeared just below the blood of the chum bucket. After nipping at the boat’s propeller, it took one angler’s bait--a whole mackerel--and hurriedly sounded below.
The rod remained bent for 15 minutes before it was handed to another fisherman, who tried unsuccessfully to turn it upward. Finally Mike Thomas, the third angler to try his luck on the fish, brought it to the surface.
Martinez, realizing the futility of trying to boat the 125-pound fish, cut it loose.
Other big sharks, mostly blues, began to bite and soon there was a double hookup in progress with two “fully grown blues.” These big sharks dispelled these anglers’ notions that blue sharks don’t fight.
One fish was landed after a 30-minute battle. The other, apparently dissatisfied at being pulled closer to the boat, spit out the hooked piece of mackerel and scurried gracefully toward the open sea.
The bite continued well beyond the time limit set by Martinez, who eventually utilized a brief lull to tell his passengers to “call it quits.”
As the fishermen reluctantly began to retrieve their baited lines, the fin of what looked to be a large shark was seen closing in on the balloons. It inhaled Wallace’s mackerel and, with a single thrash of its head, snapped the line. It then took Mike Thomas’s bait, popping the balloon in the process.
Martinez sighed but patiently waited the several minutes for Thomas to muscle the large shark to the boat. In its gaping mouth was a 10-foot wire leader with two large hooks, and several sharp teeth.
Martinez, carefully pinning the “big blue” to the side of the boat with his gaff, removed both hooks with a long pair of pliers and set the hungry fish free.
The passengers watched the agile swimmer spiral downward, eventually disappearing out of sight.
Another of Martinez’s successful charter trips had come to an end.
“Shark fishing now accounts for about 70% of my business,” said Martinez, who has been in running such trips for four years. “People are finally realizing how well sharks fight and how good eating they (mako sharks) are.”
Fishing for sharks has been big business on the East Coast for several years. And with mounting popularity, many tournament organizers--there are between 40 and 60 tournaments a year on the East Coast as opposed to the half-dozen held during the early 70s--have imposed either catch-and-release formats or other restrictions to help protect the many species of sharks that thrive in the warm waters of the Gulf Stream.
Jack Casey, a Rhode Island-based biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service, said that while there are no restrictions imposed by the various state fishery offices in the east, the fishing pressure in there is still on the increase. “It’s still sky rocketting,” he said.
Casey also said that there is no evidence that the Eastern shark fishery is in any immediate danger, “but with the expanding commercial and recreational fishing that could soon change.”
An estimated 20 million pounds of shark was caught by recreational anglers on the East Coast in 1979, Casey said, adding that sharks as a rule are generally slow to reproduce, which makes them “more susceptible to fishing pressure.”
While West Coast figures will never compare to those in the East, Southern California anglers have been taking more of an interest shark fishing recently. Sport fishing landings are beginning to get in on the act, shark fishing tournaments are on the rise and charter skippers are utilizing the growing interest in sharks to “make their boat payments.”
Commercially, there were a half-million pounds of mako shark--the most sought after species by recreational fishermen--harvested in 1987. The flesh of a mako--some consider it similar to that of swordfish--sells for more than $7 a pound. A 40-pound mako, according to Martinez, will yield about 25 pounds of meat.
The increased fishing is not expected to harm the mako fishery, however, according to Dennis Bedford, a biologist with the Department of Fish and Game. Primarily, the mako is found mostly in offshore waters and is less vulnerable to the gill net fishermen.
In contrast, the coastal swimming thresher shark--also considered excellent to eat--has been harmed by California’s commercial fleet and as a result, a restricted season was imposed in 1985 in hopes of aiding its recovery.
“Thresher shark (commercial) fishing reached its peak--2.3 million pounds--in 1982 and has been declining ever since,” Bedford said, adding that commercial fishermen caught a half million pounds of mako sharks last year.
Eddie DiRuscio, manager of Davey’s Locker Sportfishing in Newport Beach, said his business has been picking up since the landing began running shark-fishing trips two years ago. “We started two years ago running two trips a week, and last year we were (fishing for sharks) four to five days a week,” he said. This year DiRuscio has added three night trips a week to keep up with demand.
“A lot of folks are interested in catching a big fish,” DiRuscio said. “It (shark fishing) offers good sport and it’s relatively easy to be successful at . . . and it’s inexpensive.” Davey’s Locker charges $35 for its party boat trips and the six-pack charter skippers charge anywhere from $60 to $100 per person, depending on the size of the boat and services offered.
Two months ago, Point Loma Sportfishing began offering shark fishing five nights a week. Manager John Collins said business couldn’t be better. “It’s a novelty,” he said of the reason shark fishing is becoming so popular. “It’s something new. . . . It’s catching on because there’s a certain fascination with catching a shark.”
Most anglers, however, consider either the acrobatic fighting style of the mako, or the taste of its flesh to be the prime attraction.
“I’ve had makos jump several times on a single hookup,” Martinez said. “I had one 150-pounder jump so far out of the water that it looked like Shamu when it came down.”
Said Mike Thomas: “It’s the perfect way to experience heavy-tackle fishing without having to travel (far) or spend hundreds of dollars.”