Posted by Labugman on June 06, 2004 at 18:17:30:
....I have some shark wrestling stories for you. The first occured several years ago on the backside of Catalina at a place aptly named Shark Harbor. While hunting for white seabass a soupfin shark swam under me. Viewing it only from above, I shot it thinking it was a seabass. When it turned I realized it was a shark. I pulled it in and grabbed it by the gills and wrapped my legs around its' tail end like a wrestler. It was squirming in my arms while I got my spear shaft back. a friend swam up and said " looks like you got your hands full". He was right.....Now this brings us to the other day. I'm diving at a local spot when I shoot a white seabass. I dispatch it with a knife to the head and start to put it on my stringer when it slips out of my hand and sinks to the bottom. I dive down to the 40 ft. bottom to get it and found it seemingly alive. How could this be? Well, a shark had it by the tail and was shaking it violently. His head was waving back and forth. It was a 4 to 5 ft. blue shark. I tried to grab the fish and pull it out of his mouth but the shark yanked it out of my hand before I could get a good grip on it and started to swim off with it. The thought had occurred to me that this shark was not normally a threat to bite a person but that many animals will bite if you're trying to take food out of their mouth. At this point I needed to head back up for air. The excitement had brought my heart rate up. As I surfaced I saw that the shark had dropped the fish but was heading back for it. As I caught my breath at the surface I decided the fish was not worth the hassle of going back down after it. It wasn't a very big fish anyway. I let the shark have his feast and moved on. I've had enough with shark wrestling for now......Mel