Sharks & Kites, Spring Is Here

[HIGHFLYN]

Originally Posted by RickI

The buggers are FAST.

You better believe it!


The one that I saw was defiantly curious, I'm sure if it had been more aggressive. I would have never seen it coming till it was too late.

Though my years of surfing here in South FL. I've seen PLENTY of sharks while out in the line-up from my home break @ Lake Worth to Sebastian Inlet.
The most impressive one that I'll never forget.... It was a beautiful beach day, No surf pretty much oil clam sunny mid day. I was up on Lake Worth Pier flipping a live sardine to the snook cruising among the pilings and a large shadow caught my eye in 8-12ft of water about 100ft North of the pier, This was between the two shelters just to the east side of the sandbar. The fish was heading North in no hurry. I had a closer look and MY GAWD I couldn't believe my eyes. It was every bit of a 15' TIGER SHARK in 8-12ft of water cruising just outside the beach bathers by 50-75 yards TOPS. The Lifeguards never even saw this. I could plainly make out the entire fish, Beautiful actually. Dark gray w/darker gray to black "Tiger stripes" w/it mouth agape. You could see the pilot fish swimming around it's mouth. That's when I saw something else, COBIA all underneath this HUGE shark. I flipped my sardine in it's direction and 3 cobia shot out from under the shark and were in HOT pursuit of my bait. I snatched it away from the to smaller ones and picked up the follower that weighed in @ 32lbs. The shark never broke it's stride North bound, slow and steady. There were a few other cobia caught that had also come off that shark. But I was the only one to actually see the shark (so no one believed it was 15' Tiger)

Until the following weekend (one week later) I was out at the end of the Pier fooling around with the cruising snook again, Not much was happening. So I headed into the surf to see what I could do in there. Next thing I know I see a flurry of activity out at the end, rods bent everywhere. Then some of the anglers start dragging more cobia down to the bait house to have there pictures taken and to tell me as they passed that. They too had seen that very same Tiger shark off the end of the Pier cruising south this time and LOADED w/cobia again.

That was the one and only time I've seen a Tiger shark and I'm great-full for this as that fish was defiantly a MAN eater


I have two friends that have been hit over the years. One was @ Jupiter Inlet south side that got it on the hand (not bad a few stitches) the other was up in Vero and took it on the calf (40+ stitches and some muscle damage) Both still surf but are ALOT more cautious during the spring and fall bait runs

[ricki]

Tigers, interesting stuff. I've seen cobia hang out with large stingrays but didn't know about the shark association. You come from a background of serving platter riding uh surfing. That's different then, your tolerance to the hazard is higher then. Sebastian, aren't there plans to build a shark fast food outlet there, "Surfers To Go" or something? I think they are to specialize in fried "human tenders" with an appetizing selection of shark sauces.

Sorry for the irony but the shark attack experience in this lightly populated area involving a lot of surfers over the years hasn't been too good as shown in:


From: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/

I will dive with sharks, ideally while not in feeding behaviors but wouldn't choose to surf with them. The whole struggling bait imitation thing that you go through when paddling in puts me off. Sharks can be beautiful UW, particularly when they are cruising in that special disinterested way they have. Here's to interesting time on the water without excessively memorable tiburon encounters!

[ricki]

Another good afternoon on the water. The wind was a bit lighter than yesterday at times but it was still fun. Initially didn't see any sharks except for one jumping spinner. About an hour before sunset, I passed over about 6 sharks in less than 10 minutes outside the breaker line. Would swear that three were on an interception heading with one running on the surface dorsal out in the classic way, (curious like cats?). So, I chickened out and rode inside the breaker line for the balance of the session. It was near low tide, shallower and I didn't see any sharks in that area. Heard that one sponger got goosed by a shark earlier in the day but he didn't make a permanent impression. Still more wind tomorrow easing in the afternoon. There may be squalls though, so may miss out.

Lots of guys had to have been out today. How was it?