SH SH SH SSSSHHHHAAAARRRKKKKK!!!!!!!

[frankypettolina]

First for me in OC today, 6/11.

Fished on the Hard Head with Capt. Joey. Released a mako, and a blue shark. No big deal.

Was kind of bored. Flat calm. We are south of the Hot Dog in 30 fathoms. I go up to the bridge for a change of scenery. Shooting some BS with Joey I turn and look to the wrong side of our slick. There she is, not 30 feet from the boat. 20ish foot of her. No idea what she would weigh. But no doubt about it, Jaws herself, a Great White. As I yell it out for everybody on the boat, Joey turns and belts out some colorful language of his own. SHE IS NOT ALONE. Not 1 great white, Not 2. Hell not even 3. 4, count them 4 Great Whites next to the Hard Head. The big one was the one I saw first. The small, if you could call it that, one was somehwere between 12 and 15 feet. The other 2 were in between. The small one profiled past the transom, less than 50 feet from us. Dorsal out of water, like a scene from The Discovery channel. They were lazily swimming, and were with us for a couple of minutes, no more. Really, they paid us no mind whatsoever. Saw the big and small one very clearly, the other 2 pretty good also. No one thought to grab a camera. We were in awe.

Now I ask, what were they doing together? I heard about a whale carcass being spotted over the weekend, maybe they all ate together and then were hanging out? Were they on their way to an Orgy? I do not know, but it was frickin' incredible.

I have been fishing offshore since 1983 out of OC, and have never seen anything like this. Incredible. Thats all I can say.

[Thunnus Amongus]

Franky-
We saw one Thursday that was in the neighborhood 15-17' south of OC on the 20f line. I know there have been lots of sightings of big ones this year...TOO many to be just one shark! You have confirmed my thoughts of being more than one. HOLY CRAP! 4 WHITE ONES!!
Perhaps what we are seeing here is a rebound of the species. We also released one this year. Our first white release. It was ALOT smaller than 15'
Thanks for the great report!
Tom

[Proheat]

Holy S**T Franky!!!

I thought that great whites didn't frequent our area too much. I wonder whats up with them all of the sudden!!

The water has been warming up real fast here lately. maybe that has something to do with it.

[russell1]

good to hear the report,wow 4

[Capt.Joe Monticolo]

Yes Franky they were cool. I still cannot believe it 4 FULL size great whites right next to the Hard Head. I guess we better start to carry half a cow to pitch bait one next time .

1 2 3 holy sh*t 4

[Thunnus Amongus]

Yes Franky they were cool. I still cannot believe it 4 FULL size great whites right next to the Hard Head. I guess we better start to carry half a cow to pitch bait one next time .

1 2 3 holy sh*t 4

OK... what was the secret chumslick ingredient??? I saw on the news there were some seals missing from the salisbury zoo!

[dman25]

Did'nt anyone have a freakin camera! For gods sakes its 2007!! One of my unfullfilled fantasies is to see a great white up close in person. Maybe I'll get my chance this week with all the sightings. I can't imagine what it would be like to see 4 at once. Wow would'nt it be awesome if they rebounded well enough that seeing them would be as common as sunfish or big turtles. might not be good for having tuna on th hook though.

[Squidnation]

kinda weird Franky and Joe that it was a complete anomoly to see a great white out of OC and all of sudden the numbers are exploding. Last year we saw two. I can understand the rebound theory but I think we would have been seeing smaller ones over the years. I wonder if we are expericing some sort of different current pattern that is keeping the eddies offshore and cooler water here. I know GW's prefer cooler water.

[Duskydog]

We may have been seeing some of the smaller ones over the years and mistaking them for little makos. After fishing with Thunnus Amoungs this weekend the one we released looked a lot like a mako until we had him boatside.

[Notorious]

We saw one last year as well while picking mahi off a pallet just inshore of the hot dog. Needless to say, the mahi split when Jaws got there. He didn't pay any attention to our little 32ft. center console and swam right under the boat. Four at once is absolutely incredible.