California

California Guides and Outfitters:

San Diego Makos

John Barr

Catch-and-release fishing for the ultimate predator.

Makos are the fastest, highest-jumping sharks in the world. They gather off the coast of San Diego during the summer, and attack flies fished in a chum line.

Mako sharks are lightning-fast, powerful killing machines. While great white sharks have a much-deserved reputation for their size and ferocity, makos stand alone as the pound-for-pound strongest, fastest, and highest-jumping sharks in the ocean.

So who would be crazy enough to target them with a fly rod? A decade ago, makos were an interesting incidental catch, but San Diego bluewater captain Conway Bowman has turned shark fishing into a science, and has developed an approach that gives properly equipped fly fishers excellent opportunities to hook makos on a daily basis (weather pending).

What's more, his berth in San Diego is just a short jaunt from the airport, with easy connections across the Western U.S. I stay at Dana Point Inn, which is a 15-minute taxi ride from the airport, and then walk to the marina where Bowman keeps his boat: a 24-foot Triton with a walk-around center console.

The first time I fished with Bowman, I got on a plane in Denver in the early morning and was hooked into my first greyhounding, leaping mako before lunch on the same day. Click Here To Continue.

John Barr is a contract tier for Umpqua Feather Merchants. His latest book is Barr Flies (Stackpole Books, 2007).