The One that Got Away

(The top picture is mine.....The bottom picture is on a research boat, and shows the overall mass of these things)

Lamna ditropis. The most powerful, strong, and down-right grueling fish that I have ever faught, imagined, or seen. Let's take the story back in time....about 25 years ago, I moved to Alaska with my family. My dad and I spent every summer together on the Kenai, and Cook Inlet. I have witnessed, 15-20 100+ lbs. halibut landed in our boat, but I've never hit the century mark, to this day.
I finally hooked a big one, on August 1. We were fishing at 180 ft and I was fishin the jig....then, wham!
I got a solid hook-up, and was soon in the fight of my life. The fish was pulling at an amazingly strategic tension. It wore me into a sweaty frenzy, and I could tell everyone in the boat was getting excited when they started to look for the gun! I'm guessing it was 45 minutes into the fight, and we finally got a glimps. A shark? Not a 300 lbs Halibut? Kinda cool, but what am I gonna do with a shark? It circled under the boat a few times, but I finally got it close to the surface. Not just a shark, a really big shark, big scary big shark! We are guessing close to 10 feet, big shark! It ran, fought it another 20 minutes or so, saw it again. This time, it flicked it's tail way out of the water, and slapped the side of the boat, soaking us all!
We didn't have a leader, didn't have shark experience, never expected in a million years.......the one that got away.... and that's a good thing! 10ft Salmon Shark?!?