Capt. Jack & Bill Davis get a monster mako release!
Friday July 8 2011. Fished one of my favorite big mako banks looking to get angler Bill Davis hooked up to a large mako. Conditions were perfect, clean blue/green water, perfect temp, good breeze to push us along. Raised a 70 lb after a few hours of chumming. Watched this guy cruise around until he left around 1pm. 15 minutes later we saw the reason the little guy left. A very nice mako in the 500lb class. This would be Bill's biggest mako so out went the IGFA 50lb outfit with the tuna head bridled to the business end. The mako took the bait instantly, a little gunning the boat and we we are hooked up. This fish behaved very politely and was to leader in about 15 minutes. This fish was so cooperative, she shook the hook out as she was being held for photos so we did not even have to re-rig this rod. A few more hours passed without much going on. Around 5pm an estimated 700lb mako cruised very slowly up the slick. In went the 80lb outfit with angler Brian Hyder on the rod. This fish took the head after a short inspection. Brian engaged the drag, I gunned the boat, we came tight for an instant, then the line went slack. Did not get a hook set. We cruised back to the slick saw the big mako still cruising put another bait in, were bit instantly. We set the hook again and were on this time, unfortunately we soon learned we were on with a 250lb class blue shark that had some how got behind the big mako and took our bait. He was shortly released and we cruised back to our slick that appeared to be empty. Not convinced the mako was gone we attached a float to the bait and began to drift it back into the slick. Sure enough up popped that huge dorsal and tail near the float. The fish, unknown to Brian had already eaten the bait and we were not able to get the quick hookset required to hook the corner of the mouth with the big circle hook. Hooked somewhere in the soft tissue of the mouth the fish tore off on a scorching 400 yard run before throwing the hook as I turned the boat to give chase. Oh well 1 for 2 that day on the monster makos.
