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That's why I don't put my yak in Australian waters!

I mean a kayak is just a big topwater lure to a big fish.

A 6.5 meter kayak is over 20 feet long. Musta been one hungry shark.

When you put it like that...

There was a great white siting just off of Fernadina this weekend, so I don't think you have to go all the way to Australia.

There was a great white tagged off the mayport jetties a few years back and she's been seen within a few hundred yards of the shore multiple times. I never got the feel that they were particularly uncommon...not the most common for sure but I know people who see one or two a year fishing out of the jetties.

Danibeth wrote:There was a great white tagged off the mayport jetties a few years back and she's been seen within a few hundred yards of the shore multiple times. I never got the feel that they were particularly uncommon...not the most common for sure but I know people who see one or two a year fishing out of the jetties.

I fished and dove out of Fernadina, Jacksonville and St. Augustine for years and years, including targeting sharks and I've never seen a great white in the wild. A buddy was on board a charter several years back when the spotted one out of the Outer Banks and the skipper said he had never seen one before. The skipper was reported to be a grey headed fellow who had been skippering for years. There was a video of this sighting online at one time.

Well, I'm not gonna say that y'all are wrong or that y'all don't know what to look for. I was just saying what I've read and heard from people I trust. Would I expect to see one if I went out fishing off of Jacksonville? Nope. Would I be surprised to see one though if I did? Nope. Would I be excited? YUP. I remember seeing footage of a great white videoed in the last couple of years down around Jupiter Inlet I believe. One of the inlets down in that region, but I think it was Jupiter. So, they're around FL, sometimes even in close.

ocearch.org is a shark tagging research group and I know that they've tagged great white sharks, hammerhead sharks and tiger sharks and probably other kinds of sharks. Mary Lee is a great white shark that was tagged back in 2012 in Cape Cod and she has put in an appearance over in Jacksonville, made the news even, and many places in between. She was "seen" within the last 30 days somewhere off of GA, not as far out as the drop off from the continental shelf. There are 2 other tagged great whites that have been "seen" off of GA, though lots closer in than Mary Lee, in the last 30 days. One that was tagged on March 5 off the coast of GA and one that was tagged last year and she has made the migration between Cape Cod and St. Augustine and is back in GA. It's pretty interesting stuff and goes to show that the ocean has no boundaries and when you're a big toothed badass, you can go wherever you want to go. But the research also says to me that they're not particularly uncommon in those waters, just not commonly observed by people.

White sharks are not uncommon at all in the Gulf or Atlantic. It's on my bucket list of fish to see in person. I would love to dive in a cage with one.

http://www.ocearch.org/

All I am saying is that compared to other shark species around Florida, the Great White is a pretty uncommon sight. I asked another friend yesterday and it turns out it was his brother on the charter that took the video years ago and he like me, has never seen a great white around Florida. I've watched with interest the movement of the tagged sharks and they move in very close to shore at times.

I lived in South Africa for 27 years.
There are a plethora of great whites to the east of Cape Town.
It has created a tourism industry for shark cage diving.
Would not want to undertake an offshore a yak "experience".