SHARK RESEARCH - DR. "SCREAMER" phd

A steady 25 knots of northwest wind is screaming over Langara, bunching up the boats , insearch for suitable water and chinook salmon. This last four days has been spotty, our size plummeted, and snap season has officially began, until the next run arrives!With the wind comes lumpy water, boats tightly fishing in numbers, which does bring on the humor big time. Sure is funny to see guides and guests blow they're stacks over 15 lb jack kings. I saw Miracle blow his stack, after being waved off for a very small ten pounder out at Cohoe Point, shortly thereafter blew my own stack when my dummy flashers came up tangled beyond recognition. The tides are strong, the wind howling, and cluster you know what is allpart of it.Yes fishing is slow, sometimes dead, but today a 64 was released here at Langara, so that gets us excited. I did see boat 11 with a 29 lb fish tonight, and other than that, lots of 12 to 17 lber s. Hmmm interesting, but yesterday we did have a nice surprise on my boat, a salmon shark successfully landed and relocated for live release at our docks! I am posting the pics here now if they are successfully loaded, you will see this amazing shark in my hippaquarium, as well as a release.

I was fishing out at Cohoe Point catching notta. My first bite with my new guests was while I had the rod in my hand, checking my roll at the side of the boat. Just my luck, out of nowhere an 1800 lb sealion stormed me and grabbed that bait, gulped, then screamed for shore. I set that hook hard dammit, and that lion had a nice choke I am hoping.Not long after on a mooching rod set at 20 pulls, a crazy strike, the rod snatched by the guest, but wrapped around my neck and soon outboards in seconds. Holy shite, the line was screaming. I new pretty much right away, a shark, the famous salmon shark! These guide favourites show when the pinks start pushing by, and wow do they fight. Pretty rare to land, but this whacked shark cooperated somewhat, after a 25 min battle she was in my net, going mental, biting and rolling and trying to hurt someone.I managed to wrangle her aboard and into my huge live release tub. After filling with water and relaxing my new guest, we decided to roar into the dock for pics and a live release, as well as a quick showing at North Island Lodge, Rod is the islands shark expert.

Rod had his gawk, then off to our docks. The shark was calm and relaxed, so we got lots of close up pics. Now time to release, you think a dock guy or a guide would help a brother out? Not this time, too many teeth, so I was on my own. Dammit that skin is 50 grit sandpaper, soon making me bleed on both arms, then biting my rigger, now that was close.

Just as I had her on the edge of the boat, she sank her teeth into my upholstery, much to manager Terry's horror, that was quite a rip. No one seemed to notice the blood on me, but hey, how often do you get to wrangle a shark and live release it. No help from the crowd, but Conman took a couple pics for me, so thanks for that.

We have no tyees this trip, but hey salmon shark season is now open. The guides are hitting them on the weighted rods, breaks up the day, gives the guests a workout. The winds are backing off tonight, so we should be able to move around somewhat tomorrow. The tides are all confused with the wind, downrigger wires under over and around the boat, everywhere but where they are supposed to be. Just to add some fun, kelp is at times everywhere, so you have to pay attention. And the added bonus? SEA SNOT....brown ocean diarrhea that clings to the lines soon making monofilament look like rope. This snot has to be cleaned off the line every ten minutes, and you can imagine what the fish rags look like at the end of the day, good times. Now imagine how the guides are enjoying the jellyfish on top of this, down-riggers groaning like overloaded winches, yes, that is why I call it snap week! Soon the next run will move in, and all will be back to normal, but until then, plenty of laughs on the usual tacks.So I am off to bed, tomorrow is soon here, and we have chinooks to catch, check back soon for a full report, Mike Tonnesen, Head Guide, Screamer