We vacationed as often as possible at Grayton Beach and fished as much as possible from the beach; always with Mr. Shark in mind. Everybody knew they were around; dusk and dawn were best and according to their movie manifestations cruised the surface with dorsal fin beckoning. Consequently I fished for them with the biggest bobber I could buy and a pinfish about six inches underneath the bobber.
Then I bumped into somebody who knew what he was doing. Fishermen have a reputation for “secrets”: places, baits, techniques. In fact I’ve never met one who wouldn’t enthusiastically tell you everything he knew. And this was no exception. Shavings 3 & 4 were whacking pinfish on #10 gigs and shrimp in the surf so I wandered East to see what this guy was up to. He was fishing for sharks with cut squid on the bottom. I mentioned the dorsal fin business but he assured me the bottom was the place to be. I ask him if squid was good but he said live bait was always best. I told him we had plenty of live pinfish so he rigged one up, walked out to chest deep water and cast it as far as possible.
The rest of the tutorial included leaving the bail open, finger loosely on the line, until the shark started frankly swimming away as they were inclined to fiddle with it before they got serious. This, plus making sure no swimmers were near-by as sharks tended to run parallel to the shore not straight out to sea. It did not take long. Shavings 3 & 4 got their picture taken with the big rod and a four foot black-tipped shark strapped to the hood of his old International jeep (guy was a class act).
The next morning, sans big bobber, bail open, finger on the line, standing on the second sandbar…. it starts. Just a few line wraps at a time and after about a minute off he goes. I’d been standing there thinking “I’m gonna catch a shark. I’m gonna catch a shark. I can’t believe it, I’m gonna catch a shark”.
With the second attack in Jaws you get only a brief glimpse of the shark. It was a lot like that. Out of the water comes the back third of the fish and then thunders down. I kid you not, thunders. I had a new thought; “not that shark” as I turned and headed for the beach as fast as possible.
All useful fishing knowledge seems to come from acquaintances or personal experience. Experience here taught a) forget about those swivels with gently curved snaps; use the ones that come to a point, and b) cast from, but linger not on, the second sand bar. There is symmetry to shark fishing’s possible outcomes; we’re not talking about carp or skipjack.
ML
1/26/07
