Maco off the beach

[Nickaway]

Check this out. My mate caught this Maco 9ft plus of the local beach this weekend.

momentoffame.com/snapshots/MomentOf...Fame/l61937.jpg

He was using a 12/0 Penn and hooks as big as your hand. Most of us were fishing for Pompano and Red fish using fishing strips but Oz loves to mix it with the sharks using 30lb baits. To catch a Maco is very rare and this is only the second one I know caught from our Texas beach. (Padre Island National Seashore TX) You can get the full story and more pics from the Breakawayusa.com site on the surf fishing forum. Not trying to steel traffic just thought you would find it of interest. Regards Nickaway ex suffolk boy.

[pauliepoo's]

Hey Nick,

I bet you guys are less inclined to wade out in the surf knowing those things are around.How does he get a 30lb bait out there?

[pauliepoo's]

Just another thought, your mate could quite easily sell the picy to one of the mags as a front cover!

[Cranfield]

Nickaway---Gettaway, the only thing your mate is good at, is Photoshop.

 

I may have been born at night.....but not last night.

[Stinca]

shadows on shark and 'angler' aren't exactly consistant are they. the sun is to the left of the 'angler' and to the front of the shark. do you have two suns in texas?

[Satchmo]

I think he needs a bit more practice on his Photoshop retouching!

[Alan Taylor]

Nickaway:

Seems like a silly place to be, from the picture the person seems to be between the Shark and the open sea.

Alan(nl)

 

[ 10. December 2003, 06:25 PM: Message edited by: Alan Taylor ]

[gonefishing]

well looking at it onmy laptop and using PS all day for retouching i'd say the chap in the bg looks a little odd, and perhaps its not the best place to stand but not much jumps out as looking odd. The shadows are consistant, the sharks almost definately there in that water that way up.

 

does this help?

 

http://www.breakawayusa.com/pages/mako1.htm

 

Texas Shark hunters from the surf, are a breed of their own. Big four wheel drive trucks, 50ft 400lb steel leaders and 5lb sinkers are the norm. Normal bait would be something that most people would mount on the wall.

Herrington Rods and 12 to 16ort reels filled with 130lb mono is the gear you need to match these bad boys from the surf. Mako from the Surf is a rare as breeding Mare rocking horse.

 

Robby Sharp ( Robby The Shark) just turned up to tell me the story of the Mako. They were using their normal 14 ort hooks. They were fishing the Big Shell on the National Seashore Texas. with Jackfish as bait, head section. The camp was set and the bait's run, using a Jet ski. You ain't going to throw this bait.

 

They ran the bait out about 400yds. It had been out about 3 hours. It was now 1:30 pm on Saturday the 20th February 99. Robby had just run the slack out of the line and could see a movement in the rod. He took position behind the rod and as he did he clearly saw the shark break water. Mako are considered a game fish because of the fight they will put up.

 

Mark Davidson from Alice TX was quickly awakened and belted up for the fight. The fight only lasted 30 minutes ( but it was a tough fight). It was soon time to place the tail rope on the Mako.

Robby tailed the shark and knew straight away that it was different. He told me he was scared at first because he had not tailed one before and the Mako still looked lively. The shark covered him with splashed water as he placed the rope around its tail.

The first thing he noticed was the silkiness of the skin, the skin was smooth and a deep blue black color. He placed the tail rope and pulled it in from first bar. The shark had swallowed the whole bait and was not suitable for release. It has since been cleaned for eating and no meat was wasted.

 

The length of the Mako ( female ) was 9ft 2inches and he is making a good guess at 500lb in weight. Robby has fished for sharks for 8 years and has a good knowledge of them. He last year caught an 8ft Tiger on the South End off the beach. Maliquite beach is producing early and strange fish are coming in. A Sun Fish was laying on the beach Sunday with a massive shark bite from its tail. Again very rare.

 

If using this story acknowledge that this story came from Breakaway Tackle Inc.

www.breakawayusa.com.

 

however... is that other shot a 9ft shark? It seems theres a 9ft bloke holding its nose up if it is...

 

seems they are catching big fish though after a wander around that site...cant find that 1st one though.

[gonefishing]

"but not much jumps out as looking odd."...as in really false.

[Nickaway]

Everything in Texas is bigger. :-) That shot is taken when Oz was starting to drag the Maco back into the surf after tag and release, the amazing thing about this story is that she was released alive. Most big sharks caught from the beach will be so stressed they die. Here is a link to the full story.

2coolfishing.com/ttmbforum/showthre...30&pagenumber=1

I realize the fish might seem far fetched but here it is not unusual to have about half a dozen 9ft plus sharks landed each year. I regularly catch shark up to six foot on cast bait using 7oz sinkers and Whiting size bait. The bait that most the Texas shark boys use is to big to sling and is taken out by canoe or swam. Regards Nickaway