[Quote Mishfish]
I'm posting this for Mr. Mishfish because, well, it's a huge milestone in his career and I'm so freakin' proud of him that I have to share it with all of you!
Friday Mr. Mishfish took his client Jeff Patterson from Abel Fly Reels out for some shark fishing. They set up in the usual spot for makos and waited. Over the course of the day Jeff managed the first ever Bowman Bluewater Shark Grand Slam. He caught and released several blue sharks, several mako sharks and the last shark of the day pulled into the chum slick and looked suspicious to Mr. Mishfish. With the glare of the late afternoon sun on the water it was tough to see exactly what they were throwing at except that it was a good sized shark...not gigantic but decent sized. Jeff made the cast...missed it. Mr. MF threw out the teaser to get it's attention and it turned, Jeff threw out the fly and the shark nailed it like a hawk on a field mouse.
The shark took off like a freight train...just straight out with nothing but horizon in front of it. Eventually, it decided to turn, came back at the boat and after a bit more of a fight they got it close enough to the boat to get a good look at it...hmmmmmmmmm, shorter snout, slightly different coloring and A WHITE BELLY. Mr. MF realized he had a juvenile GREAT WHITE SHARK on the end of the line. Amazingly, they got it to the boat, took a ton of video of the beautiful creature and before they released it...they petted the head. YES, PETTED IT ON THE HEAD. Then Mr. MF popped the barbless hook out of it's mouth and the shark swam away. The two guys just looked at each other in amazement.
Mr. MF called me in my office and relayed this whole story to me...excited, elated, but definitely having done something that he's never had done before on his boat...caught and released a great white shark on the fly. That night he was quiet...humbled by the beast. Even though it was only 150lbs and whiteys make it up into the 1800lb range Mr. MF knew exactly where he stood in the food chain...and for a moment on Friday afternoon it was eye to eye with a great white shark.
In all of the excitement most of the photos unfortunately are out of focus (I wasn't on the boat!) but they did get one good one! And the video's being edited...I'll post it when I get it.
Nice fishy...
[end quote]
Conway Bowman...aka Mr. MF runs a saltwater fly fishing charter out of San Diego. He specializes, among other fish, in mako shark and blue shark fishing on the fly. Here's the website if you want to see some cool mako shark pics as well as some of the inshore/offshore fishing pics. His wife Michelle (aka Mishfish) is an amazing angler and a great photographer. http://www.bowmanbluewater.com/
No...this is not a plug for their business...just thought some of you may be interested if you're ever in the area.
