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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 )