Just tried to post this but no luck. Trying again.
As some of you know, I am from Florida, but I now live in the Atlanta area. I am working, planning, and training to become fit enough for "ocean conditions" in order to return to South Florida spearfishing later this Summer.
For now I only have old memories (which still seem like yesterday) to keep me entertained.
This was a shark encounter I had at age 14 on the reef off Key West in the Summer of 1965.
It was a beautiful day, very calm conditions. My dad, and my older brother, and myself had already been spearfishing all morning long without a break. The polegun (pole spear) had become my weapon of choice, and I was very effective with it. The fishing was good that day as it was most days in 1965. I believe we were in the Eastern Dry Rocks area. We had been spearing hogfish and lobsters all morning long. I'm sorry, I meant to say, catching lobsters with a net LOL
Anyway, I had speared this Hogfish that had managed to pull off my spearhead. I followed the fish to a small coral head. It was brain coral about a third the size of a Volkswagen. I was in about 5 feet of crystal clear water.
This fish had somehow fallen down through a slit or groove in the coral head and was laying on a sandy bottom.
Every time I would re-spear the fish, it would pull off just before I got it free of the coral head and float back down to the bottom again.
I had been working to get this fish for several minutes when that quiet little voice inside told me I should look to see what might be around me. I looked up to find a large Bull shark coming straight in on me from about 30 plus feet out. I cocked my polegun and took up an attack posture. The shark came to within 6 feet of me and turned to my right. I shot beside it trying to scare it away. But instead the shark circled back around and this time came within 5 feet of me. I am scared shitless at this point. So, as the shark began to make his circle, he looked big. I took off in the opposite direction toward the boat as fast as I could swim while still checking behind me. I was like a human hydro-plane.
Made it to the boat, got in, ran to the bow of the boat and yelled to warn my dad and brother of the threat.
"Shark I yelled" Finally I got my dad's attention. "There is a big shark out there I yelled". He acknowledged me with a head nod, then he went back to spearfishing. huh? No big deal to him, but it was a very big deal to a 14 year old kid. Looking back on it, it was the fish the shark was interested in. I suppose that is the case with most spearfishing shark encounters. Key word "most". Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Hope you enjoyed it.
