Shark tails
Posted: May 31st, 2011, 10:58 am
Ok, I'm a little on edge about these shark encounters here of late. As I mentioned in the "Sharks" topic I had a few run ins with a couple of sharks and wanted to get some feedback from everyone else on their encounters. Again, thanks for all the reply's. Well, I went out again this weekend and made my first stop at the K-tower. We had one guy in the boat rod and reel fishing, while my other buddy and I were in the water doing some free diving/scuba. All was good for the first 30 minutes, my buddy in the boat was catching AJ's (all under the size limit, but having a ball doing it) while we were knocking off a few under the water and that's when the dinner bell rang. I looked over at my buddy in the water and seen two 9' bull sharks come up underneath him. He was on the surface so I popped up to let him know they were under him. When he looked down there were three, we made our way back to the boat and hung around at the back long enough to finish our limit on the AJ's. After a break in the boat, we slid back in to check out some other fish and again started to get buzzed by the big guys. In total we seen the three bulls, at least a 10' nurse on the bottom and what i think were 2 sand sharks cruising just off the barge. Definitely to many fins for me.
Once we finished at the tower we moved in to the OAR reefs and made one more dive to finish out the day. Being that I never dove this spot before I did not know what to expect, the bottom machine was littered with structure but nothing impressive. Big mistake on my part if i were to pass this location up, the bottom was unbelievable. So when I'm diving and spear fishing I use a crab trap with the guts removed as a fish box on the bottom. I will attach it to the anchor line and let it slide down to the bottom so I can easily find it under water. Here is how it works, once we go down I will check the area and find the best location for the anchor and move it to that location as well as secure anchor, usually the center of what ever we are diving on. Being that the crab trap slides down the anchor rope I always know where the trap is and if I can not find it I'll look up and find the rope. After someone shoots a fish they can simply put it in the box so they don't have to drag it around like chum. A lot of times I will be making my way back to drop off a fish and find other fish checking out my catch and pluck another one at the box. Then when we are done diving I will pull the anchor and box up at the same time. So anyway that's how the crab trap works now let me tell you about this dive.
After securing everything, my buddy and I moved around the site and it was loaded with fish everywhere. Within minutes we were separated from each other as he went off chasing a fish that way and me the other. As i moved around I was hesitating to shoot anything because I wanted to pick my fish and I was caught up in checking everything out at the site. On the other hand my buddy was knock'em down. Upon finding a nice little area loaded with some hogs I went to find him for we could work the area together. I found him near the cage and he was pointing to it and I seen he had put some fish in it. I gave him the thumbs up on the good job and he motioned with a fin on top his head and then a chomp chomp with his hand. About that time i saw a nice grouper swim by and went for it until I heard him grunting. So I looked up and seen the biggest Bull I ever seen coming in and before I could raise my gun he poked it on the side of the head with his spear gun. At that point the shark went crazy and zipped all over the place making a big circle around us before moving out. A little shaken up we decided to make our way up and at our stop off point we caught another shadow passing under us. In all my dives I have not seen it like this out there until this year. So Again I ask has anyone else had problems with jittery sharks after shooting a few fish? I think I might need to pick up the rod and reel a little more often then I do the spear gun. I will not stop diving, but a few more episodes like this weekend and I might have to lay low until they move out.
Oh, what my buddy was trying to tell me underwater was he seen a couple of bulls while we were separated and when he went back to the cage to drop off a fish the big one was nibbling on the cage trying to get the fish inside it. I highly recommend the cage idea for everyone with all the shark activity, its allot better to have the sharks nibble on a cage then a fish hanging from your side like a big bag of chum.
Once we finished at the tower we moved in to the OAR reefs and made one more dive to finish out the day. Being that I never dove this spot before I did not know what to expect, the bottom machine was littered with structure but nothing impressive. Big mistake on my part if i were to pass this location up, the bottom was unbelievable. So when I'm diving and spear fishing I use a crab trap with the guts removed as a fish box on the bottom. I will attach it to the anchor line and let it slide down to the bottom so I can easily find it under water. Here is how it works, once we go down I will check the area and find the best location for the anchor and move it to that location as well as secure anchor, usually the center of what ever we are diving on. Being that the crab trap slides down the anchor rope I always know where the trap is and if I can not find it I'll look up and find the rope. After someone shoots a fish they can simply put it in the box so they don't have to drag it around like chum. A lot of times I will be making my way back to drop off a fish and find other fish checking out my catch and pluck another one at the box. Then when we are done diving I will pull the anchor and box up at the same time. So anyway that's how the crab trap works now let me tell you about this dive.
After securing everything, my buddy and I moved around the site and it was loaded with fish everywhere. Within minutes we were separated from each other as he went off chasing a fish that way and me the other. As i moved around I was hesitating to shoot anything because I wanted to pick my fish and I was caught up in checking everything out at the site. On the other hand my buddy was knock'em down. Upon finding a nice little area loaded with some hogs I went to find him for we could work the area together. I found him near the cage and he was pointing to it and I seen he had put some fish in it. I gave him the thumbs up on the good job and he motioned with a fin on top his head and then a chomp chomp with his hand. About that time i saw a nice grouper swim by and went for it until I heard him grunting. So I looked up and seen the biggest Bull I ever seen coming in and before I could raise my gun he poked it on the side of the head with his spear gun. At that point the shark went crazy and zipped all over the place making a big circle around us before moving out. A little shaken up we decided to make our way up and at our stop off point we caught another shadow passing under us. In all my dives I have not seen it like this out there until this year. So Again I ask has anyone else had problems with jittery sharks after shooting a few fish? I think I might need to pick up the rod and reel a little more often then I do the spear gun. I will not stop diving, but a few more episodes like this weekend and I might have to lay low until they move out.
Oh, what my buddy was trying to tell me underwater was he seen a couple of bulls while we were separated and when he went back to the cage to drop off a fish the big one was nibbling on the cage trying to get the fish inside it. I highly recommend the cage idea for everyone with all the shark activity, its allot better to have the sharks nibble on a cage then a fish hanging from your side like a big bag of chum.