It was a beautiful day in LA. I took the bike down to Venice and rode along the bike trail to the Venice Pier. At the end of the pier a man with several fishing poles pointed out in the distance a whale. I didn't see it, but we started talking. He was fishing for sharks.
Eventually I asked if I could take a picture
for my blog of the pier. He said sure. Then asked if it was on YouTube. He'd been on YouTube catching a shark. I said that if he caught a shark today I'd video tape it and put it on YouTube.
We talked about this and that. It was lovely just being out there at the end of the pier. When all of a sudden he sees his pole jerk and runs to grab it.
When he sees it's a great white shark, he asks me to go get the pliers. I didn't quite understand what he'd said at first, but I stopped the video and found the pliers and he'd cut the line before I could get the camera going again. But at the end he talks about his great catch. The video is pretty much the whole thing. I cut from the fish to Rafael at one point but there wasn't much time without the cam on.
I bet his left arm is sore tonight.
He caught the shark out at the end of the pier - you can see people silhouetted way in the distance.
These surfers were enjoying themselves next to the pier, oblivious to the fact that not far from them Rafael had hooked a great white.
[UPDATE July 13, 2016: LA Times article about a man arrested for pulling in a great white from Pismo Beach pier. Video and photos on Facebook. Shark was tossed back in, but was out of the water a fairly long time. Rafael knew the law and cut the line instead of pulling his in.]
