Pete Thomas Outdoors

Angler pets mako shark as casually as one might pet a dog (video)

By Pete Thomas

Keith Poe spends much of his time offshore, trying to lure large sharks close enough to bait and tag for science.

What does the Southern California fisherman do with smaller sharks attracted by his chumming technique?

The accompanying footage shows Poe gently pulling a free-swimming mako shark by its dorsal fin and stroking its back as casually as one might stroke the back of a family pet.

“Come on, girl. Come here,” Poe says, reaching toward the 6-foot shark. “We’re gonna get you some pets. Come on, come on. Yeah, get you some pets.”

It’s a definite don’t-try-this-at-home moment, not advisable for anyone without vast experience in working with sharks.

Poe, who tags sharks for the Marine Conservation Science Institute, has caught an estimated 5,000 sharks and understands their behavior as well as anyone.

He said he was chumming in the San Pedro Channel off Los Angeles when the small mako shark appeared.

“She was just hanging out,” he said. “I was hand-feeding her and petting her for several hours while waiting for an adult shark to show up. I never [bait] them unless they’re mature females 9 feet and up.”

He said the shark was never aggressive, and that he shared the video because mako sharks “are always thought of as such vicious animals, and it’s just not true.

“They come up to the boat all excited ready to kill something because that's necessary to eat usually.
But after a while they calm down and you get to know their real personality.”

One of the largest mako sharks Poe has tagged is named Cinderella. Her movements can now be tracked via the MCSI’s Expedition White Shark app.

“When I tagged Cinderella, an 11-foot, 4-inch mako, I spent a long time with her, feeding her before I caught her,” Poe said. “It’s part of an effort to reduce capture shock.

“As a result, after I caught her, and tagged and released her, she stayed at the boat for an hour-and-a-half eating out of my hand.”

Poe, who recently had an 18- to 20-foot great white shark “hang out with me for five hours,” said he typically sends most of the sharks he tags to freedom with a stroke or pat to the head or back.

Call it a perk.

Man goes ice fishing with pitchfork, two pet sheep, and becomes Internet sensation

By Pete Thomas

Video showing a man ice fishing in Kazakhstan, exhibiting a style of catching that’d be illegal in the U.S., has gone viral on social media, perhaps because of its simplistic nature.

 

Зимняя рыбалка говоришь? Да что ты знаешь о ней?)) pic.twitter.com/BI2G5FY3mG

— Габит Рахимберлин (@Starshina73) January 12, 2020

The footage, shared Sunday by Twitter user Gabit Rahimberlin, has been viewed more than 7 million times.

The unidentified fisherman, accompanied by two white sheep, is the picture of confidence as he chops a hole in the ice, baits the water with pellets, and hurls his pitchfork through the hole to impale four hefty fish, one after the other.

The rest is a display of efficiency: The fish are quickly cleaned and hauled over the man’s shoulder, on the prongs of his pitchfork, back to the homestead. In his yard the fish are carefully seasoned, butterflied with twigs, and cooked over an open fire.

All in a day’s work, the fisherman gestures at the end, with two thumbs up and a broad smile.

–Image is a video screen grab

 

365-pound yellowfin tuna landed off Cabo San Lucas

By Pete Thomas

After hooking two giant yellowfin tuna and losing both – one after a 4-hour fight – a group of anglers out of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, boated the catch of a lifetime.

Steve Hammerschmidt of Huntington Beach landed the 365-pound ‘super cow’ after a marathon struggle last Tuesday in the Pacific, 30 miles north of the resort city on Baja California’s tip.

Veteran anglers often refer to yellowfin tuna topping 200 pounds as “cows.” Tuna topping 300 pounds are “super cows,” and catches of these giants are quite rare.

However, even larger yellowfin tuna exist within their range in the eastern Pacific. The world record yellowfin – caught south of Cabo San Lucas in 2012 – stands at 427 pounds.

Hammerschmidt was fishing aboard Castigo with owner Larry Jacinto, Capt. Sean Sadler, and mate Adam Cargill.

According to Rebecca Ehrenberg of Pisces Sportfishing, which posted about the catch on Facebook, the anglers had received information about the presence of large tuna from the crew of the San Diego-based Red Rooster III.

After arriving at the spot, they hooked a tuna estimated to weigh 380 pounds and lost that fish after 4-1/2 hours, in the darkness, just 15 feet from the boat.

Cargill told Ehrenberg: “We were devastated after we lost this fish, but we were ready to get  right back on it first thing in the morning. The next day I rigged the line with a natural flying fish I had, and immediately had an explosion on it. Again, huge fish, but we missed it.”

Cargill then baited a line with a fresh sardine, handed the rod to Hammerschmidt, and the hookup was nearly instantaneous.  After 2 1/2  hours the fish was safely on board and the veteran anglers celebrated their largest catch to date.

The tuna measured 84 inches and had a girth of 59 inches, leaving the group with enough fresh ahi to feed a small community.

–Images are courtesy of Sean Sadler via Pisces Sportfishing