Mako water temps

[Deep C]

I dont think there are any makos left on the easy coast. Every year it gets harder and harder. I think they should shut it down for a couple years.

I dunno... I caught more last year number wise than in a very long time. 27 in very few trips...
That being said they were all rats with the biggest only pushing 160 and that one came from the Hudson.In fact we only had one other "keeper" for the season... They're slow reproducers and I don't know where all the babies are comming from. There must be a breeding stock some place but dog gone if I know where they are. Its both good and bad to see. Good to see numbers. Bad to see so many rats and seeing so many of them killed.
We only saw one pig in the pocket at Chub this year. Usually we see one a week... A few bigish fish off Florida as by product of swordin but those numbers were down too.

[kidIsurus]

I dunno... I caught more last year number wise than in a very long time. 27 in very few trips...
That being said they were all rats with the biggest only pushing 160 and that one came from the Hudson.In fact we only had one other "keeper" for the season... They're slow reproducers and I don't know where all the babies are comming from. There must be a breeding stock some place but dog gone if I know where they are. Its both good and bad to see. Good to see numbers. Bad to see so many rats and seeing so many of them killed.
We only saw one pig in the pocket at Chub this year. Usually we see one a week... A few bigish fish off Florida as by product of swordin but those numbers were down too.

Have always read that that the biggest mako breeding grounds were in cali. this may help.
Reproduction: Relative to other marine fish, sharks have a very low reproductive potential. Mako sharks have a two or three-year reproductive cycle, and a gestation period of 12-18 months. Litter sizes range from 4 to 30 pups, although only a handful have been examined. These pups are large at birth, effectively reducing the number of potential predators and enhancing their chances of survival. All sharks have internal fertilization. During mating, the male shark inseminates the female with copulatory organs, known as claspers, that develop on the pelvic fins.
Breeding season: Given the lack of information on the distribution of mature adults and reproductive biology the mating season is not known, however pupping likely occurs in spring and summer.
Spawning grounds: In general, pupping areas are located off southern California and northern Mexico. Based on the catch of juvenile sharks, the southern California Bight appears to be an important pupping ground for mako sharks.

[Captain Fred Archer]

I have caught makos in quite cold water in the mid-fifties range. And threshers in even colder water temps. Bear in mind that they are endothermic, like bluefin and bigeye tunas and swordfish. That means that they can regulate their body temperatures and operate in much colder water than most fishermen realize. And the bigger models, mostly females, have a much higher tolerance for cold water than the smaller fish, which helps explain Canadian and Pacific Northwest tunas and swordfish in the same places.

Because of that endothermic ability, predator fish with it are able to follow big bodies of bait basically wherever it goes, so as it is with all fish, finding the bait is the key to finding and catching the endothermic gamefish, in this case, the mako and thresher sharks. So, even though it isn't done that much, I believe that there are probably plenty of both species around as soon as their favorite prey, mackerel and bluefish are around, they too are there. But nobody fishes for them, so nobody catches them, so "they aren't here yet." That is a self fulfilling prophecy of the first order.

I guarantee you that there are threshers and very likely some makos around as soon as the macks show up...and they won't be off in some perceived "preferred water temperature" either...they will be where predator fish always are - around the bait!

If I were still back there I guarantee you that I'd be out there right now, trolling and power chumming the edges of the biggest schools of macks and blues that I could find. And once I found them by trolling, I'd switch over to power chumming and catch the small makos on light gear and the threshers on the right kind of guns. That technique is a perfect match for what has happened to the shark populations - especially the makos. I hope that some back there pick up on this great way of dealing with today's sharks.

[tunabite]

57 degrees , killed a 240 lb 8 miles SE of the jackspot on may 17th, 2000. MOJO had killed one 260ish close to there the day before.....