Currents | Release 030

A Shark Encounter, Fishing Hats, and Graphic Tees

May 07, 2026

Trouts on the Mind, Sharks in the Surf

A Shark Encounter Before Work
By Jason Forman

It’s easy to get caught up in the daily grind and forget to carve out time for yourself. Our family stays busy, and Los Angeles somehow manages to feel wildly fast-paced for how slowly the traffic moves. Lately, I’ve been especially bad at making time to fish.

A week ago, a friend spotted and hooked a leopard shark during one of the Los Angeles Mayfly Project outings I volunteer with. The hook bent out and the fish was gone, but it stuck with me all week long.

So I decided to sneak in a few hours before work. The tide lined up the same way it had that day, and I figured there had to be a chance. Honestly, I was just happy to be standing on wet sand with the sun rising over an incoming tide.

Within fifteen minutes, I had two aggressive bites. One fish either bit through or broke off my fly, so I adjusted my leader and kept at it. Not long after, I came tight again. I strip-set, cleared the line piled up in my sketchy DIY stripping basket, and worked the shark in with the current and waves to beach it as quickly as I could.

Even though it was hooked just under the mouth, I couldn’t have been more stoked. Not just to hold a leopard, but because of what it represented. I’d managed to get it done before clocking in for a 9-to-5. And a 90-minute commute doesn’t feel nearly as bad when you break it up with a few hours spent chasing sharks.

More than anything, it validated a proof of concept: even in a full life with two working parents, raising a young kid, and everything else, there’s still a way to carve out a little space for yourself if you’re willing to get creative about when and where you find it.

I’ve been hugely inspired by my wife. She gets up to exercise at 5:45 almost every morning. This was my version of that, just a few reclaimed hours, and a reminder that the time, and the leopards, are there if you’re willing to go looking.

Jason Forman
IG: illking & parrquest