Sharks!!

[magicalbill]

OK..
It's almost wintertime..I assume all here will have spare time to post now that the season is over in the North.

I would like to hear everyone's best shark encounters since so many of you all fish.
1.) What kind of shark?
2.) How big?
3.) What circumstance did you come across it? (Fishing? Swimming? Surf-fishing in the shallows?
4.) Any danger involved in the encounter?

This is just something to occupy time in the cold weather..Plus, I am fascinated by sharks.

 

[catch22]

"Seen one eat a rockin' chair one time". :lol:

 

[blackdiamond296]

"Seen one eat a rockin' chair one time". :lol:

Arghh- 'see this scar here- mary moffit, she broke my heart!' 8)

 

[chrisA.]

"he didn't eat a car did he?"

Had one funny tale,my wife and I along with my neighbor were out drift fishing and she caught a small shark,about 1-1/2 ft long,my neighbor grabs it by the body and is holding it out away from him when the shark makes a lunge for his stomach and bite a hole into his shirt,after we all stopped laughing I told him I'm glad it was him and not me as if it were me being bigger than him,the shark would have gotten quite a hunk out of me so we all laughed again and let mr shark go.I've also had them beat up my leg as one did to Mike Rowe on dirty jobs one day when they were tagging sharks,all I though of was "ow,ow,ow,ow,ow,ow!!!.....'Fairwell and ado to you fair Spanish ladies, Fairwell and ado you ole ladies of Spain...

 

[gradyfish22]

I almost ran one over last year coming back from the canyon, it was about a 150-200lb mako. We stopped to fish for the thing but after a near miss from my props he just teased us next to the boat and swam off. I'm glad I didn't hit it but I never saw the thing until I was practically ontop of it. Also hooked a 200+lb class thresher and on the first few jumps it almost clipped my outrigger off the boat. Ended up losing that one, we were out matched using 60lb flouro while chunking BFT. All the other sharks were wimps...they died in the boat!!! :lol:

 

[magicalbill]

I didn't expect the movie quotes, but, what the heck...

STARBOARD HOOPER!! Ain't ya watchin' it????

 

[chrisA.]

you know,once we get off on a tangent,,,,,,,,

 

[Fishermanbb]

Long story ...But here goes: I was about 13 and we were off montauk...About 15 miles on my father's Bertram 25. He and his friend were fishing...We were trolling for Bonito before we set-up for sharking. It was like a lake....I'm on the flybridge running the boat and I see a couple of sharks on the surface (2)...My father tells me to slowly idle over while he pulls in the bonito rigs and sets up for shark. I idle over.....There are two fins and I get about 50 yards aay and they start moving exactly the same way at the same time....Now we're 50 fet away ...It's one shark...Great White.....Looked to me to be as long as the boat and almost as wide....Remember, I was looking down on it so it really looked huge....All I re'member was the water turning gray and having this feeling that that "Thing" had no business being in the same body of water as I was....It looked like a small island......Anyway, the shark never bothered us and when I looked down at my father to see what his intentions were he just said " forget that...Get us out of here".....I was MORE THAN HAPPY to oblige......We estimated the shark around 23 feet......That was the year after "Jaws" came out....

" ...Fish like that'll swallow you whole. Little shakin', little tenderizin,...Down you go. I'll catch this bird for you but it ain't gonna be easy....Bad Fish....And I value my neck a lot more than $3000.00. I'll find him for three...But I'll catch him, and kill him...For 10"

 

[Legend]

Mine is more of a complaint. lost more pogies than I can count while fishing BFT. Darn dog fish are taking over the ocean. Amazing the amount of them that will surface too chase one pogie. Pogies actually can give one a pretty good run but when there are dozens it time to move on.

 

[catch22]

There are two fins and I get about 50 yards aay and they start moving exactly the same way at the same time....Now we're 50 fet away ...It's one shark...Great White.....Looked to me to be as long as the boat and almost as wide.

"You know how you know that when you're in the water, Chief? You tell by looking from the dorsal to the tail"..... "I'll never put on a lifejacket again".

 

[blackdiamond296]

Now that I got my quote out of the way- here's one of the sharkin' lessons learned on our boat:

About 10 years ago we had a buddy from California out shark fishing. It was a slow day so we started picking bluefish out of the slick. I was about 13 and was having a friendly argument with our buddy about my improved clinch knot vs his palomar. I get a bluefish on for 2 seconds and then SNAP- my knot broke. Then my buddy's gonna show me 'how its done' and ties up a rig with a palomar- gets a blue and then SNAP. Now my Dad looks over, calls us both idiots and goes to show us up. Right after his knot breaks is when the 250 pound Mako comes right up next to the boat, rolls on its side to flare its gills and swims away!!! Our knots weren't breaking- every time we hooked up one of these 8-10 pound blues and slowed it down this Mako came by and inhaled it! :shock:

After that heartbreaking lesson we only pull blues out of the slick when their within sight of the boat!

 

[LittleMrs]

I've caught my share of bonnetheads - does that count ??? :lol:

"Boys, oh boys... I think he's come back for his noon feeding. "

 

[Scrounger]

Turned my inboard into an outboard.

 

[gwwannabe]

My first off-shore fishing trip - there were 4 of us on the boat, a friend's 30 ' Trojan. Left out of Mystic, CT, went to Montauk for bait and fuel and headed out to the Gulf Stream. Set up the slick and drifted for hours. He had one of the cushioned deck chairs with the gimbal cup instead of a real fighting chair anchored to the boat. Each of us took turns in the chair and had on a leather fighting harness around our shoulders and back that connected to the eyes on the reel.

My turn in the chair. Surface had turned choppy. Others see a fin heading toward the baloon suspending the bait in the slick. Next thing I know, there is tremendous pull on the rod. I didn't know anything about the drag but at this point I need both hands on the rod. The boat owner is screaming at me to not let the rod touch the gunnel because it will break, I'm yelling at them to get me out of the harness. Everyone else is yelling and cheering because it's a Mako and he's leaping out of the water a lot. By this time I've got both feet up on the gunnel and have slouched as low as I can get in the chair. I'm screaming "Get me out of this GD thing" and visualizing being dragged over the side.

Suddenly the line went slack. Everyone groaned except me - I was never so relieved. When I got the line in, we saw what happened. We were using heavy wire and when Dick (the owner) put the hook on, he'd wrapped the wire tightly for nearly 3 inches. That shark actually pulled all the wraps out of the wire line. I was razzed for years about the one I lost but I was just glad to be alive. I can still see that rod, almost as thick as a broomstick, bent in a big arc.

It made me an avid fisherman and taught me some valuable lessons. I take nothing for granted now and make sure I understand how to operate whatever equipment I'm using.

Gary 89 Overnighter

 

[magicalbill]

Awesome stories!! This is turning out exactly as I'd hoped....

"I Need Something In The Foreground To Give It Some Scale!!"

"Foreground My A#$#@@#$!!!"

 

[fishingFINattic]

Fished Oak Bluffs shark tourny this year -

First day we have a huge run off on the deep bait early in the morning -

80 class reel - 130 darcron with 130 mono top shot - Fish nearly spooled us -

Chased the fish for 7 1/2 hours - 12 miles -

That is right - you cant trade the rod off in the tourny - so I got stuck with the rod for 7 1/2 hours - full drag on the fish (we set the strike at 33 before the tourny) -

We ended up running out of time - called for an extension - got one but I just couldnt take any more -

Got the fish to the leader once - leader man grabbed the leader - fish started to run - he grabbed the mono top shot and pulled - line broke -

It was either a great white - large tiger - or large hammer head -

Whatever it was, it was huge - the next weekend we had 400 lb thresher to boat in three hours - so I have a good sense of what a big fish feels like.

FYI - I ended up losing one of my finger nail becaus I sqeezing the reel handle so hard - bruised knees - could barely move for the next few days!

Tim
Tim

 

[magicalbill]

Again; great stuff here..

Question..When you specifically fish for Sharks do you raise them every trip?
Reason I ask..We went Shark fishing with a pro-outfit out of Bud N' Mary's in Islamorada..We went to the famous "Hump" in the Gulfstream..We caught amberjack as baitfish, but never caught a Shark. The winds were blowing counter to the Stream and the seas were steep 5-7's with the wind against the current.
We had a pretty rough day with no sharks..Does that happen to you all?

 

[fishingFINattic]

I keep track of my fishing trips - including sharks -

I specificaly target sharks - focusing on mako's and threshers -

Take a look thru my blog - at the bottom click older posts to get past the inshore / end of season fishing -

There are some great shark pictures and specific stories -

I go shark fishing about 15 to 20 times a year!

http://fishingfinattic.blogspot.com/

Tim

 

[Scrounger]

When I was twelve years old my father got me this boat. And I went fishing off of cape cod, and I hooked a scup and as I was reeling it in I hooked a four and a half foot baby thrasher shark. Who proceeded to eat my boat. Heh, heh, he ate my uh, oar hooks and uh my seat cushions, he turned an inboard into an outboard scared me to death and I swam back to shore. And when I was on the beach, I turned around I actually saw my
boat being taken apart.

 

[catch22]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoQKb_5L ... re=related

You can skip the first 30 seconds.