74 Man Against Shark 



Panama City, Florida 



Sharks are where you find them, but finding them is often much more diffi- 

 cult than catching them. One day, you are pulHng them in with every haul of 

 the net. The next day, they are gone. But one of the charms of shark-fishing 

 is the interesting people you meet while you are trying to meet some sharks. 

 While scouting the Gulf of Mexico for a likely spot for some profitable shark 

 fishing, I met a couple of sharkers with some good yarns to tell. 



Captain Charles Thompson told me about a whale shark that didn't get away. 

 I'll pass along the story as he gave it to me. 



"We were anchored just below Knight's Key, about half a mile from the old 

 Florida East Coast dock. Looking over there one morning about 9 o'clock, I 

 saw an unbelievably large shark within a few feet of the dock trestle. We 

 immediately took to the launch and started after the fish. 



"We got nearer and nearer until the boat was right over him and we could 

 see his spotted back 3 or 4 feet below the surface. I drove a harpoon into him 

 near the gills. 



"We called to some nearby fishermen to come and help us, and with their 

 assistance we did everything we could think of to make him fast: 40 or 50 times 

 during the day we shot at him with a rifle. At a distance of about 2 feet from 

 his back we let fly with a shotgun loaded with No. 2 shot, which just bounced, 

 leaving a little circular mark in his skin. 



"Unruffled by our little attentions, the fish circled several times in from the 

 trestle to perhaps a mile inshore, coming back again and again, and about 1 

 o'clock in the afternoon, when the tide was running out, we thought he would 

 get outside the bay. 



"But the fish remained in the bay. I was surprised that he did not put up 

 any fight and was so extremely sluggish. He seemed not to realize that any- 

 thing in particular was happening to him. He kept circling around, moving his 

 big tail in a slow, regular way, drawing the small boats after him with the 

 greatest of ease. There were now several harpoons in him, and one line was 

 fastened through his tail and another made fast to the dorsal fin. 



"About half past five that night he made his last circle in from the trestle, 

 and this time we headed him over toward a sandbank by poking his head with 

 a boat hook. He finally stranded on the sandbank, where he was made fast with 

 lines around his body stretched to oars stuck deep in the sand. 



"A piece was then cut from the top of his head. With a knife on the end of 

 a pole we tried to reach his brain and kill him. We were surprised to discover 

 about three inches of gristle at this point in his head." 



I later saw Captain Thompson's great shark on exhibit in Miami. It weighed 

 13^ tons and was 38 feet long and 18 feet in girth. A careful examination showed 

 that it was a young Whale shark which had not yet reached maturity. 



Another yarn came from Captain W. B. Caswell, Sr., an old-time Gulf 

 fisherman who called Panama City his home port. 



"I had built a campfire in the palmetto," he began, "and was boiling a pot of 

 coffee about 2 o'clock one morning. It had been a cold, raw night, and my crew 

 had made three long hauls over coral reefs. Just after midnight, a big shark, 

 striking at the gilled mackerel in the bunt, had torn our seine half in two. So 



