Sun7Feb2010

Bull Shark Brush

Information
Bob Diaz | SpearBlog 1999 | February 07, 2010

This story just goes to show that sometimes you get lucky, and you don't even know it until everything has happened.

It was late in August, 1999. We were spearfishing a ledge that we visit from time to time. Usually we find a fair amount of grouper there. But we also know that this late in the summer, we sometimes get a little something extra... a shot at some Cubera Snapper. We don't get to see a lot of these during the peak summer months, so we make extra efforts to come here in the later summer months. The viz, as usual, is only about 15-20 feet. This is a limitation of the area we frequently spearfish in. The stronger currents will usually do one of two things, either the water becomes very clear (rare, but usually around high tide), or it becomes extremely dirty. The latter was the case on this visit to the ledge.

 

We had our friend Oscar, driving the boat for us this day, so we weren't too worried about our proximity to the boat. My brother-in-law makes the first dive. The water is only about 20 feet deep at the top of the ledge, so I can watch him from the surface. He shoots, and come up with an empty spearshaft.

 

When he surfaces he tells me that he missed an easy shot on a grouper poking its head out of a hole in the top of the ledge, so down I go. I scan the ledge from side to side, looking for any evidence of a grouper in hiding. As I make my way down the length of the ledge, what should appear to my left, but a Cubera Snapper. It was a small one, but a good 10 lbs. I had shot about a 20-25 pounder in this same area a couple of summers ago, but it tore off my shaft. I had always promised myself that if I got another chance, I would make it count.

As I quietly turn my gun to the left to follow the fish, unbeknownst to me, my brother-in-law, while reloading his gun, has spotted a 10 foot Bull Shark. It comes close enough for him to poke it in the side of the head when it got a little too close for comfort. By this time I have gone slightly beyond his viz range. He (my brother-in-law, not the shark) had seen me take off swimming after something, but he hoped I wouldn't shoot, because he had no immediate way of warning me of the shark. Of course, we all know what happens next...

I slowly round my gun to the left, getting the fish lined up in my sights. These fish are pretty skittish, so I knew I had to move slowly. Suddenly, he broad sides me! I couldn't believe it! I take my aim and shoot. Not a great shot, but I get him right beneath the left gill plate and it penetrates completely. He begins to thrash, so I don't try to reel him in immediately. Suddenly, he lays still. I couldn't believe my eyes, he was just laying there. Now, I knew I hadn't made a kill shot, so I reel him in, hand over hand, very slowly. Once I got him close enough, I shove my hand into his gills and hold on tight. To the surface I go... Little did I know that my jubilation would soon turn into worry with a dash of panic.

The second my head breaks the surface I hear my brother-in-law yelling, "big bull shark! big bull shark!". I immediately hold the fish out of the water. Two lucky things had already happened: my less that perfect shot on the fish, was luckily not bleeding terribly. Had I hit him through the gills, the amount of blood would have been a lot more. And secondly, the fish wasn't thrashing. Upon getting the fish out of the water, I quickly swim over to where my brother-in-law was, thinking he could at least fend off the beast with his gun until the boat arrived.

Two seconds later, Oscar rushes the boat up to us. Hoping that the noise of the boat had at least distracted the shark, I try to get the fish over the side gunwale of the boat. Once I got the fish over the side, I hooked my arms and started to raise myself over the side of the boat. It was then that I felt a strong bump on the back of my right knee in the water. Whatever it was that hit me was really abrasive. As I'm lifting myself into the boat, I convince myself that it was my brother-in-law's fin that had rubbed against my leg as he made his way to the boat.

Once in the boat, I tell my brother-in-law that I got a little scared when he kicked me with his fin on his way to the boat. Unfortunately, my brother-in-law pointed out to me that we had come up on opposite sides of the boat. There was no chance that he had hit me with a fin or any other part of himself.

Now, I'm not going to tell you that this was some kind of near death experience or anything like that. But we are talking about a 10 foot bull shark, that hit me with some part of his anatomy (thankfully, not the open toothy part). And that is what I put down in my book as getting lucky and not even knowing it.

Needless to say, we didn't go back looking for the grouper that day...