Verdigre Creek Journal

It was on my mind.

Conway Bowman had recommended bringing along medication for seasickness.  It was on my list, but higher priority items had pushed it to the bottom.  I didn’t pick any up.  My mind was trying to trick me into thinking that I was getting sick as we cruised out of the Harbor at Mission Bay out to the blue water.

I had nothing to fear but fear itself.  Nothing ever happened, but it was in the back of my mind all day.

Mission Bay is a no wake zone.  We cruised to the breakwater passing several large, almost gargantuan, cranes and barges.  They were reinforcing the breakwater with large boulders.  A barge, holding a heavy crane, listed lazily in the Santa Ana breeze.  The neighboring barge was laden with boulders, herculean in dimension.  Dave Trimble didn’t know where the came from.  Had they been granite, I mused, they probably would have come from the Sierras.  “But at tremendous expense,” I thought to myself.

Wherever they came from, they were massive.

My reverie was broken by the sound of the motor.  Trimble accelerated as we exited the Bay.

Right outside Mission Bay are the kelp beds.  Famous for harboring many species of fish.  We motor on, our destination is the continental shelf.

The sea life is spectacular.  We pass several mammalians.  Blue whales, bottlenose dolphins, common dolphins, and California sea lions (also know as dawgs or furballs).   We see several mola mola cruising the surface….

California Sea Lions

A Blue Whale in the Distance

On to Part V – The Chum Slick

Dave stopped the boat.  The water was 100 fathoms deep.  He attached the chum bucket to the side of the boat, scored the tuna only after cutting the fish’s belly off, and dumped it in the bucket.  He set a course to return to the continental shelf and cruised along at a couple of knots, steering the boat while simultaneously smashing the chum with a PVC pipe.

Tuna for the Chum Bucket

Chummin'

The oils from the tuna were visible on the surface of the water.   Bits of tuna floating behind the boat attracted flying rats, seagulls, in search of a free meal.

Flying Rat

Watching the sonar, we could see the bottom rise steeply to 300′.  We were back at the continental shelf.  Dave shut off the motor and we began to drift.

Trimble said that fishing with a Santa Ana wind would be tough.

Our chum slick, though, would draw the makos to the boat.

The situation is not unlike chumming for bear.  Makos and bears share the fact that humans are their only predators.  From their beginnings as cute and cuddly cubs, a bear belies its true nature as it ambles along in search of berries.

Makos, on the other hand, look like killers.  They are born as killers.  Developing embryos feed on unfertilized eggs produced by the mother in the uterus during the gestation period and, indeed, there is evidence of sibling cannibalism in the short-fin mako.  They live as killers.  The mako has a heat exchange circulatory system that allows the shark to be seven to ten degrees warmer than the surrounding water. This system enables the mako to maintain a high level of activity. They die as killers.  In Italy, makos are often found with amputated swordfish bills impaled in the mako’s head.  If they are going down, they are going down with a fight.

That is what sets the mako apart from any other quarry.  Makos could have you for lunch.

We watched intently.  We’d look to spy the short fin of the mako on the surface or to glimpse the torpedo-shaped body in the depths.

After an hour of watching, the two large cups of coffee that I had had earlier were beginning to take their toll.

My bladder was ready to burst.

I learned that urinating in a 3 foot swell was no small task.  My legs, well acclimated to movement on terra firma, struggled to make my way to the stern.  I balanced myself precariously against the 250 horsepower outboard by pressing my knee against the hood.  I was about to unzip when I looked down.  There he was.

“You might want to be careful,”  Captain Dave Trimble said.

I saw his point.  A mako circled below the boat.

On to Part VI – The Teaser, The Catch, The Release

Quickly, any thoughts of heeding nature’s call disappeared.  I was back in the bow drawing line off my fly rod as Dave prepared the teaser.  I felt the 30 lb, wire leader between my fingers as I grasped the hook that was attached to the red marlin tube fly.  The eye of the fly looked at me excitedly through a thick strand of red super hair.

The shark circled below the boat, surfaced, and attacked a seagull.  The seagull escaped but set down, rather nonchalantly, a few feet away.

He hooked the tuna’s belly underneath a long, red and purple, squid teaser.  He tossed it out about 80 feet.

“When I give you the word, cast your fly out right by the teaser,” he said and began to retrieve the teaser in rapidly.

The shark, feeling no embarrassment for having whiffed on the seagull, followed the teaser, his nose right on the tuna’s belly.

“Now,” Dave barked as he accelerated his retrieve.

I tossed my fly out about 50.’ It landed right next to the teaser.  Dave put his reel into overdrive and pulled the teaser out of the shark’s line of vision.  The shark circled.  He looked at my fly and rose but missed it by several feet.

Dave pulled the teaser all the way in, I retrieved my fly.

Dave tossed the teaser out again.  The shark gave chase a second time.

“Now!”

I cast my fly out in the path of  the teaser.  Dave put the teaser into high retrieving it away from the shark.

Confused, but not shaken, the shark looked left and right wondering where the teaser had gone.  He circled, spotted my fly, rose, and took it violently in the right side of his mouth.

I paused and returned the violence hitting him with a hard strip strike.

In order to keep tension on the line, I rushed to the stern as the shark ran away from the bow.  I had not developed any sense of sea legs.  Indeed, I had to hold on to something as I crawled from one end of the boat to other.  In making my way to the stern, though, I surprised myself. I maneuvered around the deck like an old sea hand.

I came to the realization that I had driven the hook home when I looked at my reel and the shark already had me into the backing.  He had made a run past the bow, dived down, and was now well past the stern.  He was still taking line.  It all happened quickly.  I’ve had deja vu’s that have taken longer.

He took a deep dive and then shot up out of the water and jumped.

Twelve, thirteen feet?  It was hard to measure. but magnificent in effect.

He made another run and another jump.  Then, down to the depths.  He was still taking line.

Dave, in the meantime, had started the engine and was motoring along at several knots.

The mako finally gave me some line.  I took what I could but he made another run putting me well into arrears.

I worked him back and forth.  My muscles trembled as I reeled him in.

As I got him close to the boat, Dave noticed that the line had wrapped around his tail.  Dave grabbed the line as I give him some from the reel.  He asked me to let some line out and let the shark take the slack when the fish was free. This would keep the shark from jumping into the boat.

I reminded myself of the safety procedures to follow in case a shark did jump into the boat.

Jump on the center console and get the fuck out of the way.

Dave quickly unwrapped the line from the tail.   The shark  took whatever slack remained and made another run.

As I drew the fish closer, Dave explained that a mako will run left, right, and down which is why one uses an eleven or twelve weight to battle them. Indeed, Jeff Patterson of the Abel Reel Company had caught a great white on a fifteen weight earlier in the summer.

I had finally pulled the shark up to the boat.

This shark was angry.  He was downright pissed. He shook his head left and right violently.  Had he been given the chance, he would have gladly taken a significant bite out of me or Dave.

Dave carefully slid the release tool down the line and popped the hook free.  The mako swam away.

I collapsed on the seat, exhausted.  Dave gave me a high five.

One Angry Shark

My bladder was ready to burst.

I learned that urinating in a 3 foot swell was no small task.  My legs, well acclimated to movement on terra firma, struggled to make my way to the stern.  I balanced myself precariously against the 250 horsepower outboard by pressing my knee against the hood.  I was about to unzip when I looked down.  There he was.

“You might want to be careful,”  Captain Dave Trimble said.

I saw his point.  A mako circled below the boat.

Sharks have always fascinated and inspired us.  The Discovery Channel’s knew this when they began running “Shark Week” every summer.   Clair Chenault’s shark-faced Curtis P-40 intimidated the foes of the American Volunteer Groups.

Sharks have also inspired inventors.  The hull of the Stars and Stripes utilized a fabric that was patterned after a shark’s skin.  Speedo and Scientific Anglers have included shark skin like coverings on their competition swim suits and fly lines.

When I told people that I would be fishing for sharks, most people said “you’ve got to be kidding me!”

When I told them that I would be fly fishing for Makos most respondents modified the word kidding with the present participle of a verb that begins with the letter f.

On to Part II

Captain Dave Trimble met me outside the Dana Landing Market.  I had been applying sun screen; my hands were covered with SPF 50.  Rather than shaking hands, we bumped knuckles.  He asked me if I had gotten a sandwich yet for lunch and directed me to the Market.  He had some things to load on the boat.

I picked up my sandwich and made my way down to the boat.

Dave allowed that the boat was somewhat smelly.  He had cleaned the bilge out with bleach and green solution but the smell of day old chum still lingered.  He pointed me to the boat.

“Dry storage in the bow, port side.  Cooler’s in the stern, port.  Watch your nose,”  he said as he loaded chum into the wheel barrow.

I struggled to remember that the bow was the front and that the port was the left.  I thought that it would be too presumptuous to say “Ay, Cap’n.”

The Chum was caught the day before on the Impulse.

On to Part III

Conway Bowman was a San Diego local.  He had read that the Mako was the most difficult species to catch on the fly in the blue water.  Those words sparked his competitive nature.

Bowman was surfer, a fly fisherman.  A San Diego local. His father had taken him fishing in Idaho as a boy.  There were some opportunities to fly fish in the lakes surrounding San Diego, however, fly fishing in the blue water was fairly non-existent when he was a young man.

He asked many of the local commercial fisherman about them.  They were more than willing to answer his questions.  What threat, after all, could this young, surfer kid pose to their fishery.

Today the commercial fishery for Makos has all but disappeared.  Conway Bowman’s business, though, thrives.  He is up to five boats.  His name is synonymous with Fly Fishing for Sharks.  He’s been on ESPN, he’s been on Versus.  His star has been on the rise for some time.

Dave Trimble’s path crossed with Bowman’s at Lee’s Ferry.  Trimble guided Bowman on the Colorado.

After guiding in several exotic locations, Trimble made his way to San Diego and apprenticed with Bowman.  For several years, Trimble kept a log of every shark they caught, where it was caught, water temperature, weather conditions, sea conditions.  It was a valuable body of data.

Although Trimble has hung out his own shingle, On the Fly, he still has trips booked through Bowman’s Guide Service, Bowman’s Bluewater.

Trimble was able to start his business through the contacts that he had made with Conway Bowman.

On to Part IV – Out to the Grounds