Troy Vines, Owner/Operator of Kitimat Coastal Charters, was out on the Douglas Channel jigging for halibut with some local men from Kitimat this past weekend, when they hooked something far larger than what they set out to catch.
‘We just went down the channel a little ways to a spot where I usually go jigging for halibut. We were just drifting over the shelf a couple times and, sure enough, one of the boys hooked something big.’ – Troy Vines, Owner/Operator of Kitimat Coastal Charters
When recounting the story to CFNR this week, Troy said it initially felt like a large halibut was on the line, but the men started to question what they caught when it put up a fierce fight as they reeled it in.
‘We fought it for about 10 or 15 munities before we got it up to the boat to have a look at it, then realized it was an 8-foot salmon shark. It was probably around 250lbs we figured.’ – Troy Vines, Owner/Operator of Kitimat Coastal Charters
Salmon sharks are a species of white shark, related to the great white, and feed primarily on salmon. They’re known to inhabit the northern waters of the North Pacific, and are often caught as by-catch when salmon fishing, but they’re rarely seen by fishermen in the Douglas channel.
‘He took us for a little bit of a ride, pulled the boat around a little bit, screamed down to the bottom a couple times… we pulled him back up a couple times until we kind of tired him out and had a good look at him. We were able to safely remove the jig out of his mouth, flip him back over, and send him on his way back down to the bottom.’ – Troy Vines, Owner/Operator of Kitimat Coastal Charters
While they’re not considered to be an endangered species and the fishermen could have kept it, Troy confirmed that since it wasn’t what they set out to catch, his clients insisted they remove the jig and release the shark back into the channel to swim another day – which they did.
The 8-foot shark Troy and his fellow fishermen pulled in was a fair size for the species, which can range from 6.5 to 8.5 feet long, and weight upwards of 400lbs.
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