It was my first real, as in real big, shark encounter.
I was diving off a buddies boat on a reef about 3-4 miles off Key Biscayne. Seas were flat, less than 1 ft swells and the wind was clam, 6 miles an hour out of the north as we launched turning into 7 mph from the east as the day went on.
The vis was fairly bad, we caught the outgoing tide and it was very dirty and there was a lot of silt in the water from top to bottom....we couldnt see enough in 35 ft to hunt so we came into about 25 ft over some good structure. I was dropping and checking holes or aspetto as long as i could to see what would come into my visibility.... as I was coming out of a large hole I saw a nice eating sized cuda (about 2 ft) all lit up and fins high cruise by, I thought about a shot but didnt get one and just kept checking holes.
about 4 drops later I saw the cuda under the reef in a long tunnel ( about 5 ft across and 15 ft long) I realized both sides were open so I took the shot, i thought it was perfect on the line but he was flapping like a politician's mouth inspite of being stuck to the bottom.
I dove and retrieved him and quickly brained him and started for the boat....knowing how cudas smell I was scaling him in the water as i finned over to the boat. Just off the swim step I gutted him and tossed the fish into the boat and reloaded, at this point I had drifted maybe 25 ft from the boat. I scanned the area below me looking to see what had come in to check out the scales and guts. I saw a lot of small grunts circling over some nice looking yellowtails and I was pleased that I might get another fish in this terrible vis. I took a nice breath and dropped about 15 ft when i saw what looked like a big school of 3 ft macks cruising right over the bottom. This distracted me as 1, that is a lot of big macks and 2 I rarely see any macks close to the bottom let alone 5 or 6.
At this point I am about 13 ft away from them and the vis opens up for me to realize that they are 5 remora and one cobia follow a HUGE bullshark. I thought very calmly to myself" hmm thats a big shark" and almost on cue he turns directly at me. I extend my gun at his nose and swim right at him. I estimate my spear tip got to within 10" of touching him before he turned to the right and vanished in the murk. The flopper on my RA shaft is 3.5" long...using that as my reference his head was easily, conservatively 15" across. my most conservative estimate is 6.5' long, but i would believe it if someone said 7 or 7.5'
I surfaced and yelled "brian, get to the boat" and made my way there POST HASTE checking my 6 and all the numbers in between the whole way back to the boat.
When i got on the boat I was shocked at how my heartrate had not increased and i stayed so calm, then I tried to reach for my fin only to find my foot shaking so hard the CF fins were wobbling <img src= " height="23" srcset="https://spearfishing.world/forum/images/smilies/emojione/1f606@2x.png 2x">
I guess i supressed the adrenal responce as long as I could to stay ready to dive if i had too, but that adrenaline was there!!! I cracked a frosty beer and announced that i was ready to move spots whenever everyone else was...
It was the first time i have ever seen a bull that size and the first time one every came at me...his back was flat and his pectoral fins out so I didnt sense and aggresive posture at all, more exploratory and I feel like i did well, i have all my fingers and toes and the limbs they go with so it was a good experience.
