VIA – CBS 8
Paddle board fisherman hooks shark near popular surf spot
Posted: Sep 27, 2011 2:38 AM EDT Updated: Sep 27, 2011 6:26 PM EDT
ENCINITAS (CBS 8) – A stand up paddle board fisherman hooked a 9-foot thresher shark off the coast of one of the North County’s most popular surf spots on Monday.
Calvin Tom fought with the big fish for an hour before he was finally able to reel it in and haul it back to the sand near Swami’s surf spot.
Tom says when he took off on his paddle board to go fishing he didn’t expect to bring back a shark. In fact he says he was just investigating some odd behavior in the water. “The birds were hitting the water real hard so I figured something was going on.”
Calvin, whose an avid open water paddle board fisherman, went to take a closer look with his friend Ty about a half mile off the point at Swami’s, with some thoughts of what it might be.
“It’s either a seal churning up the bait, so the seagulls can come down. Or it’s dolphins churning up the bait,” he speculated.
But soon they realized thresher sharks were causing all the commotion.
“I did in fact see three and I think Ty saw five of them,” he says.
It wasn’t his first rodeo with a thresher shark, but this time Calvin went for a ride when the shark began towing him out to sea, ending about a mile and a half out.
But even Calvin’s friend Tom English who shot video and still pictures of the shark once Calvin got it back to shore didn’t expect such a big catch. It weighs in at around 80 pounds. And by the time Calvin was finished filleting it out – his freezer runneth over.
http://www.cbs8.com/story/15555285/paddleboard-fisherman-hooks-shark-near-popular-surf-spot
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