277 pound thresher caught in the surf in San D -- Archive

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Subject: 277 pound thresher caught in the surf in San D

Author:
ED

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Date Posted: 927502018PDT

Big thresher landed in Sunset Cliffs surf

By Ed Zieralski, staff writer for the San Diego Union

Surf fishing is usually a mellow venture for anglers who want to catch some perch, corbina or other inshore dwellers. But there was nothing mellow about what Nathan Rayle of Point Loma did off Sunset Cliffs yesterday. Rayle, an accomplished angler in a boat, landed a 277-pound thresher shark from the surf at the end of Osprey Street. The episode sent one of his friends, Matt Riggs, to the hospital with a jig hooked to his foot. It's believed to be the biggest fish----certainly one of the bigger ----ever landed from the surf in San Diego. The state record for thresher shark is 527 pounds, caught by Capt. Ken Schilling of San Diego. Rayle, who was checked for a fishing license by lifeguards, gave details of his catch. "I was out surfing, and I heard people yelling that there was a shark in the water," Rayle said. "I got out, saw it was a thresher and then ran home to get my fishing rod." Rayle lives only a few minutes away on Coronado Street. He returned quickly but didn't see the shark at first. He waited, and a few minutes later, Rayle said the thresher began thrashing his tail on some bait in the clear, blue water off Sunset Cliffs. Rayle said he cast a 6x Salas white jig in front of the shark three different times, but it wouldn't hit it. Rayle said the fourth cast caught the shark's attention, and it bit. Incredibly, Rayle said the line broke, but the thresher remained in the area, still feeding. "I threw out another jig, this time a 6x Salas green and black, and he bit again," Rayle said. Rayle fought the fish this time and managed to get it close to the rocks. He was using 80-pound Dacron line on a Penn 4/0 reel on a stout 5-foot Fenwick custom rod. He had the right gear. But he was on the shoreline, so that changed the rules. By now, his friends, Matt Riggs and Rich Aguirre were at his side and ready to help. "He brought the fish close three or four times, but I couldn't get a good shot at the tail," said Aguirre, who was armed with nothing but a rope. "No gaff, dude, no net, nothing but us and a rope," Aguirre said. Somehow, they gripped the shark's long tail, and Aguirre looped it with the rope. They pulled the fish up on the ledge, and when they did, Rayle's first jig popped out onto the shore. As they stepped back, Riggs stepped on the jig. "It was a nasty one; the hook went really deep," Aguirre said. The men loaded the shark into Rayle's Toyota pickup, but the 12-foot thresher's long tail hung out the back of the camper shell. "We sure got some looks as we drove down the street," Rayle said. They weighed the fish at H&M Landing. Marshall Madruga, who fishes regularly with Rayle in a boat, said Rayle is "a good guy, and he knows how to fish." "He rips," Madruga said. "We were just fishing near that spot earlier in the week and caught and released six white sea bass." Others in the fishing community yesterday wondered if Rayle truly caught the fish, thinking maybe he snagged a near-dead thresher. But Rayle held to his story, that it was a real biter and one incredible catch.

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