After catching 25 blue sharks on my first day out with a fly rod, I realized I was on to something. “I bought a 17-foot aluminum boat and began pursuing them. “In the early ’90s, I discovered saltwater fly-fishing and soon learned that sharks were among the most plentiful sport fish off the coast of Southern California,” Bowman said. Noted for their leaping ability (makos have been known to clear the water by more than 20 feet), the fish have long been a target for anglers using conventional tackle. The fish are capable of bursts approaching 60 miles per hour. Mature fish can reach more than 12 feet in length with their weight exceeding 1,200 pounds. Shortfin mako sharks are distinguished by a less pronounced dorsal fin, a pointy snout and teeth out of an orthodontist’s nightmare. For a moment, its blue-black body was suspended parallel above the gray Pacific. Fifty yards away, the shark leapt into the air, its nose eight feet above the water. It shook its head once, twice, as if in disbelief at what was happening, then began screaming line off the reel. I stripped the fly line hard to set the hook in the shark’s tough jaw. Not 12 feet from the boat, the mako engulfed the fly.

Bowman pulled the teaser away as I stripped the fly. Grabbing a hardy 14-weight fly rod, I slapped a 25-foot cast near the bait. “Cast at the teaser,” Bowman called as the shark accelerated.

The shark reappeared, its dorsal fin breaking the surface. Bowman cast a teaser bait, a rubber orange squid without a hook, 50 feet off the boat and slowly retrieved. The fish 80 pounds, our guide, Conway Bowman, guessed swam alongside the skiff, then circled away. Peering over the starboard gunwale, I spied the dorsal fin and then full profile of a shortfin mako shark. My reverie of contending in a future United States Open on the storied links was broken by my angling companion Geoff Roach’s exclamation: “We’ve got one coming in!” SAN DIEGO The green fairways of Torrey Pines Golf Course were visible through a veil of marine fog as our 24-foot skiff rolled on gentle swells a mile or so offshore.

6am at the chum bucket teaser