On a recent trip down to So Cal, promoting my work and fly fishing products at a couple fly fishing fairs, my brother Nick and I had the opportunity to accompany Capt. Dave Trimble on a Shark fishing trip out of San Diego. Told from the onset that the sharking had been tough as of late, I didn’t expect much action, so I was really excited when Dave jumped up on the bench seat and confirmed that he’d spotted a nice blue shark coming in on our chum slick. After teasing him with a mackerel for 15 minutes, an even larger Blue shark arrived at the boat. After tossing them chunks of bait, both sharks were hot to trot. The plan was for Dave to cast a mackerel with it’s tail cut off  out near the shark, and tease him with it. Just when the shark would go for a bite of fish, Dave would yank the teaser from the water, and at that very moment that we needed to cast the fly to the side of the shark’s head. Hearing the splat on the water and seeing the bright flash of color the shark would turn and take a shot at the fly. It took several attempts, but my brother Nick hooked up with the smaller shark, in the 60-70lb range. The fight started out intense, and Nick not being a fly angler, had a heck of a time getting him on the reel. Once he did, the fight smoothed out and Nick battled him to the boat in under 10 minutes.

Once the first shark was released, we settled back into the waiting game….and since we needed to be back to the dock by 12pm, we got an earlier than normal start on our beer consumption. Less than an hour went by, when the larger shark from earlier returned. He meant business this time around.I had him hooked on the second cast, but he shook free because I hooked him right in the middle of his toothy jaw, rather then in the corner of his mouth, which Dave told us was the only place you could stay hooked to a shark. Immediately the blue shark came back to the boat and gave me another shot. This time he turned on the fly just right and I hooked up with him for good. After a 10 min. battle, we landed the 90lb shark.

If you ever end up in the San Diego area, and want to get out of the city and have a fly fishing adventure, I highly recommend calling Capt. Dave Trimble.

www.ontheflyfishingcharter.com/

See all photos of the trip in “Recent Fly Fishing Photography” in the Gallery section of the site.