News of a massive Sixgill Shark French Creek encounter has been tearing through local tackle shops this week, proving that the Salish Sea is still full of prehistoric surprises. While every seasoned saltwater angler on Vancouver Island dreams of that classic, back-breaking thump near the bottom that signals a legendary, barn-door halibut, Parksville local and longtime Marion Baker Hatchery volunteer Dale Ksyniuk got a whole lot more than he bargained for south of the big hump.
Dale, who traded the sweeping grain fields of Saskatchewan for the deep blue contours of the Coast back in 2015, is no stranger to handling big fish. When he isn’t exploring the island’s coastal corridors in his boat—affectionately named the Rough Rider (spelled R-U-F-F Rider, naturally, as a dog lover and favourite football team fan)—he functions as the hatchery’s resident “Dr. Frankenstein,” running the fertilization table. But nothing in his years of egg-takes or offshore Bamfield excursions prepared him for a solo, two-and-a-half-hour tug-of-war with a 10-foot, deep-water Bluntnose Sixgill Shark.
Dr. Frankenstein in his element: Longtime volunteer Dale Ksyniuk giving back to the local watershed by releasing a bucket of chum salmon fry into French Creek. (Photo: Michael Briones)
How the French Creek Encounter Went Down
The trip started out like any standard day of local bottom fishing. Dale was anchored up in roughly 220 feet of water, running a slow scent bag deployment stuffed with salmon scraps to draw a scent trail across the deep mud flats. Armed with a heavy jig, he was working the bottom contours, waiting for an aggressive cruiser to strike.
Dale dropped his line back down to the mud to target the zone after hooking into a dogfish. The very instant his weight touched the ocean floor, the rod suddenly loaded up with massive, immovable pressure. “I could feel a big tug, and I started working it,” Dale recounted in our exclusive interview. “When it wasn’t coming up, I put a lot of tension on it.”
A massive 9-to-10-foot silhouette cruising alongside the gunwale of the Rough Rider after an exhaustive two-hour deep water battle.
Operating entirely solo with multiple lines out, Dale had to navigate a logistical minefield. To prevent a catastrophic multi-line tangle with whatever leviathan was holding the bottom, he spent 15 frantic minutes hand-hauling his anchor and clearing his gear while keeping a tight line on his main rod. What followed was a lesson in pure leverage.
Snapping Plastic and Hand-Lining Tuna-Style
The gear choice made the battle exceptionally sporty. Dale wasn’t sporting a heavy-duty, short-blank halibut rod paired with an oversized Penn reel spooling 100 lb braid. Instead, he was armed with a 12-foot beach-casting style rod loaded with standard 40 lb monofilament. The immense torque and leverage of the long rod combined with the mass of the shark created so much pressure that it snapped two of his heavy-duty Scotty rod holders right off the gunwale.
“The only thing that saved my rig was my safety tether,” Dale says. “The rod went right into the drink, but I managed to pull the cable back in and keep winding.” To spare his spinning reel from total mechanical meltdown, Dale threw on a heavy glove and began hand-lining the mono directly, pumping and winding in unison—a style more akin to bluewater tuna fishing than traditional inner-strait jigging.
The weapon of choice: The high-density 14 oz P-LINE Halibut Drop Jig (White Glow), an absolute staple for mimicking large bottom forage.
Realizing he couldn’t winch a flat-headed giant straight up through the column on light monofilament, Dale deployed a clever tactical maneuver he’d heard from local charter veteran and Island Fisherman French Creek Area Reporter, Capt. Daryll Jobb. When a massive flatfish or bottom dweller acts like a barn door beneath the boat, you don’t fight gravity straight up. Dale started his motor, eased the boat forward 200 yards to create an acute pulling angle, and slowly planed the fish up toward the surface, a few painful feet at a time.
When the shark finally wallowed on the surface, Dale attempted to use pliers to remove his jig. The shark violently rolled, lunging its jaw within six inches of his fingers before biting clean through the heavy mono. Dale’s post-game advice is clear: “Next time, I’m just cutting the line immediately. No piece of lead is worth your fingers.”
🐙 The Salish Sea is Full of Surprises!
From deep-water monsters to rare marine visitors, our waters are incredibly alive.
CREATURE FEATURE: The Bluntnose Sixgill Shark (Hexanchus grisus)
While a Sixgill Shark French Creek sighting makes waves across local news outlets, these primitive predators are actually permanent, vital components of our deep coastal ecosystems. Unlike modern shark species that sport five gill slits, the Bluntnose Sixgill belongs to an ancient evolutionary lineage dating back to the Triassic period.
Typically residing in deep benthic environments exceeding 300 to 6,000 feet, these giants utilize a biological routine called diel vertical migration. They spend their daylight hours resting in pitch-black ocean trenches, but creep into shallower coastal shelves at night or during overcast seasonal upwellings to hunt down high-protein targets like spiny dogfish, rays, and salmonids. They boast specialized glowing green eyes optimized for ambient light capture and rows of saw-like lower teeth designed for carving up dense carcasses.
This encounter isn’t an isolated anomaly along our coastlines. Vancouver Island has a rich history of deep-water shark interactions. Over the years, commercial fisheries and recreational anglers have documented notable Alberni Inlet sixgill occurrences, and the deep vertical rock walls off Hornby Island remain globally famous among research divers for seasonal encounters with these gentle, sluggish giants. Because they grow incredibly slowly and reproduce late in life, they are strictly protected under DFO mandates—meaning catch-and-release is not just the ethical choice, it’s the law.
Making headlines: Dale detailing his epic solo encounter to the CHEK News crew alongside the battle-tested RUFF Rider.
Watch the official CHEK News broadcast detailing Dale’s spectacular solo battle in the Salish Sea.
Reflecting on his wild afternoon, Dale is perfectly content leaving shark wrestling behind. “It was an incredible experience, but honestly, next time I’d sooner pull up a big halibut. My back is still feeling the strain.” It’s the ultimate fish story—and luckily for Dale, he kept the video camera rolling, ensuring his day out from French Creek remains etched in West Coast angling lore forever.
🎣 Do You Have an Epic Angling Story to Tell?
Did you hook into a strange ocean creature, survive a wild backcountry storm, or land a personal best trophy fish on the Coast? Don’t let your legendary moments live exclusively on your phone’s camera roll.
