My best guess to what this fish was is now a 25-50 pound thresher shark. I talked to a guy at the hook today who caught a 40 pounder and saw others at Goleta Beach recently. He seems to know his stuff and he was pretty convinced that it most likely was a small to medium sized thresher. Because of the speed and power of the runs, he discounted a big leopard shark, big angel shark, and monster halibut. Although I didn't see it super clearly, I do distinctly remember seeing 2 or 3 distinct bulges of water when he boiled which makes me think the fish had big fins and a big tail now that I reflect on it. I guess I just didn't process that information before.....

I went back to that spot with some squid off the shore at dusk the other day and caught a bunch of shovelnose guitarfish and leopard sharks in only and hour and a half. Since I also caught 2 angel sharks there in my tube that probably went 20-35 pounds, I guess having a thresher swim through wouldn't be all that funky. I'm headed out early tomorrow morning again to see what I can get. I'll post a report.