Posted on 12/28/2015 7:02:56 PM PST by Lera
It’s abt 70 miles to the Gulfstream out of Jax. Wonder how far out they were...
I saw one off the Connecticut coast while I was on a deep sea fishing trip. The captain said they are very rare and are a protected species. It looked like the hood of a 72 Cadillac.
[[It’s abt 70 miles to the Gulfstream out of Jax. Wonder how far out they were...]]
I have never fished this area but
charter boats don’t usually go that far out.
They were catching snappers so must have been near a reef .
Those ocean sunfish are harmless, helpless and useless, so protecting them is OK with me. Not so Great Whites and other oceanic vermin that might decide to take a test bite.
I had a barracuda bump me while snorkeling at Pennekamp .
It was bigger than me , dropped my camera .
The place is crawling with them but there are hardly ever any bites from them.
That looks like fun but my husband would roll over dead from a heart attack if I did that .
They were each between 2-3 feet and these were the silver variety. I've read that those are younger ones. There was a larger one that stalked the reefs, it was a different color however. It appeared to be dark with yellow-green stripes. I dubbed it a "Turbo Barracuda" later on. It was close to 4 feet long. I didn't feel at risk at the time but I've been in situations in the Caymans where one appeared aggressive with me but didn't attack.
Best monologue of all time, IMO.
Show me the way to go home.
I’m tired and I want to go to bed.
I had a little drink about an hour ago
And it went right to my head.
No matter where I roam,
On land or sea or foam,
You can always hear me singing my song,
Show me the way to go home.
That’s a good drinking song.
A swarm of four-foot reef sharks swam in circles very near to us, but were not threatening. Scariest thing on that dive was the ten-meter citron (lemon) shark propelling rapidly just above the ocean floor. All the other sharks got out of its way.
We also swam near an indigenous giant Napoleon wrasse.
In shallower water around Bora we swam next to a group (a radiance?) of slow-moving Manta rays; very graceful.
On Hawaii, Big Island Divers will take you on a black-water dive at night. The boat goes out a mile offshore, beyond the edge of the Mauna Kea volcano, where the ocean floor is 7,000 feet deep. The divers jump in the water, tethered to the boat with sturdy lines. The divemasters on board shine a strobe light into the water. You just hang there weightlessly for 45 minutes, watching very strange pelagic creatures swimming close by, many of them digesting each other. Thrilling!
First two rules of scuba diving:
0. When you enter the water, you enter the food chain.
1. Keep breathing! So your lungs don’t implode / explode when you hold your breath but change your depth, altering the water pressure on your body.
Sounds like an interesting story. What did you see?
You got that right.
I’ll be watching it this week. Good cast of characters.
well.... my Hawaiian fishing partner and I were about 12 miles off the west coast of the Big Island one afternoon , fishing around a buoy that marked the intake end of a deep sea water pipeline and we were into some medium sized yellowfin tuna ( Ahi) Hand-line fishing . When you fish with hand-line , as opposed to rod and reel , you can really ‘feel’ the fish on the line and it’s behavior signals what can be happening down there . So he had on a fish that was too big to just horse in and he was playing it a bit to tire it out and starts telling me that the fish was behaving strangely somehow . We figured a predator was making it nervous so he started to pull it in as quick as possible . Looking down over the side of the boat in the crystal clear offshore Hawaiian water he could see the fish coming up , but also the flash of something big , much bigger moving around beneath it . “Mano!” ( shark ) he says and really starts to crank it . Hand over hand finally he get’s this good size , maybe 40-50 lb Ahi just about to break the surface and into the boat . He is braced against the gunwale , with about 2 ft. of freeboard to the water
and I was on the motors ( twin 75’s ) . As the Ahi broke the surface , all of the sudden in a great gush of water here comes this immense shark , surging out of the water and literally gulping the fish right off the line with it’s big pink mouth wide open , full of bright white teeth , gulping and chomping . The body far wider around than I could have encircled with both arms; slate grey with death white belly and ‘that eye’ . The eye seemed about as big as a coffee cup plate . Black , menacing , fathomless . Looking right at us . In a few seconds it was over , but as it was happening , time stood still . The shark got the fish , the entire thing , we were left with some shreds of fish mouth parts on the hook , that’s it . Luckily my partner had jumped back at the last second , or he could have been part of the snack . But it wasn’t over yet . Suddenly we had this ‘visitor’ easily over half as long as our boat , a 20ft. Mako , circling around underneath . Waiting for seconds ? We always carried a ‘shark gun’ a S&W .357mag , so I asked him should I get the gun ? No! he said , let’s ‘hele ‘ ! ( to get out of there ) So we cranked it up and let the area , quickly .... In fact we drove all the way back to port 25 miles + distant . That was enough for the day . ( we also caught plenty) In review , we concluded that it was either a great white , or possibly it’s close cousin the Mako . 2 kinds of Mako are fairly common in Hawaiian waters . But to me , seeing that death white underbelly , tells me we met ‘whitey ‘ Up close and personal . - true story - ( not a fishing tale )
Is that photo shopped ?
That’s a great account of your encounter with a great white. I do thank you for taking the time to write it all out. Good thing your partner survived with all limbs intact. I’m sure it was waiting for more food.
Have a good new year and I hope your fishing goes well in the future.
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