Well our shift hours have changed from 9-9 to 6-6, so I'm trying to get use to the hours. Since I now get off at 6pm I have 2-3 hours of sunlight left so I decided to hit West Beach in Santa Barbara. The tide was all wrong but the water was so much warmer then the days prior. At last the sign that summer is coming very soon if not here now, the jelly fishes. I was waist deep in warm water casting and casting, and more casting, but nothing was biting. So I cast and moved, and moved, and moved some more. I was about 25 feet from the edge of the sand when I noticed some movement to my left side. Hoping it to be a big Corbina I move from the waist only to get a better look and what a surprize. A shark cruising the floor that looked to be about 40-48 inches long, a very nice size. It was grey with a round smooth nose. It made 3 6-foot in diameter circles moving closer and closer to me until it was about 18 inches from my left shin, then swam away towards the pier. Hoping for a hookup I casted in front of it. I reeled it in as the shark followed it back to me, then it turned away again. So again I tossed my rig in what I thought was the front of the shark and once more it followed it back to me, then turned and swan away towards the pier. I quickly changed the plastic grub to a 6 inch motor oil and red fleck grub that I know that leopards have hit in the past. I threw it in the last seen direction it had gone and got lucky, it was following it back to me. But this time as I pulled the grub out of the water in front of me and it followed it all the way to the surface just a foot or so in front of me at waist level. It was bigger then it looked!! I know I was loudly thinking "Oh Shi*! What am I doing?" but only the "oh Shi*!" came out of my mouth. I had been standing perfectfully still but when its head (mouth) turned towards me I quickly stepped backwards and then it whipped its head to the left and swam straight out quickly. I made another cast in its direction as I backed out into shallow waters, like 6 inches deep, but this time I think I scared it as much as it scared me because it didnt follow it back to me. The rest of the time was uneventful until I hear a lady scream off to my far left. I turned to looked and then started laughing out loud, so loud that they heard me on the other side of the pier, where there were 5 fly fishermen (opps fisher-person). Their only hook up was a lady that hooked her first ever halibut, which was a shortie of 20 inches. She was screaming and shreaking and having a good old time!!! And that was about it for the rest of the evening for it then got too dark for me so home I went. Stay safe, Cali Bear