Think Small
EN CANTRELL and Josh Leisen had been patiently surf-casting with 13-foot rods for three days in Struisbaai, an old harbor town on South Africa’s Western Cape. It would be dusk by the time they both landed 300-pound ragged-tooth sharks within a few minutes of each other. Fighting boredom throughout the day, Cantrell spotted movement in a tidepool at his feet, unsheathed a small rod and dangled a tiny tanago hook (roughly size 30) baited with a pinch of mussel he’d found on a boulder. Moments later, he popped the rod on a tiny Red Fingers, a native species named for the vibrant color of its oversized fins. It was not much larger than one of the wicked teeth on the shark he’d catch later, but it was a thrill and
