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On August the 15th 2012 about 6am I launch my Hobie Oasis Kayak to go fishing north outside of the Oceanside Harbor. I was trolling two lines going from one reef to another using my GPS for guidance in about 42 feet of water. About 08:30am I got hit hard on my left lure that only had 20 pound test line and the fish immediately began to pull my kayak at about 2.5 miles an hour! Most of the time my fishing rod was bent completely over with the rod tip in the water.
Using my rudder I turned the kayak to about 15 degrees to the right to make it harder for the fish to pull me and the kayak. I also reeled up my right trolling rod line and secured it in case the lines might tangle. About 2 hours later the fish turned toward the shore and after approaching 24 foot water depth I either had to cut the line or somehow turn the fish. So I tugged the fishing line to the right to get the fish to turn back to open water and it slowly worked. After about 21/2 hours of being towed the fish surfaced and I could see I had a thresher shark about 9-10 feet in length with my lure stuck in his tail.
After about 3 hours the towing speed decreased to a little less than one mile per hour on my GPS. It was partially because the shark started sounding but unfortunately he also started pulling me into deeper water. After about 3 hours and 20 minutes we started passing the 60 foot mark and I was unable to turn him. So after taking a number of pictures with my cell phone I turned the kayak around and pulled against the shark trying to drown him (sharks have to go forward to breath). Forward progress was actually being made but the line couldn’t take it and within a few minutes it finally broke. So after being towed for 3hours and 26 minutes which took me at least 4 miles there went a couple of months’ worth of shark steaks.

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Gill

Awesome story