The Old Man, the Sea & the Shark

Today being Father's Day I thought it would be a good day to share one of my dad's stories. My dad never considered himself to be a writer, but I can assure you he was a storyteller. This is one of the coolest and most frightening days of my life.

Let me add a moment I remember from my 9 or 10-year-old perspective. We had just been to see the movie Jaws when this incident took place. When the shark crested the water for the first time, my little brother screamed out, "Jaws!" I was sitting on the bow of the boat reading a book ignoring him as big sisters do. That is until a moment later I heard my dad yell. When I looked up, a huge fin cut through the choppy sea. I scrambled off the bow onto the deck and fearfully watched this story unfold with shock. There was one point where my mom was steering and we hit a wave somewhat crosswise tilting the boat to one side, causing dad to lose his footing at the stern of the boat. When I think of that moment I’m still there with the sea spray wetting my face, the air scented with salt and exhaust fumes, as I stood frozen with fear, white-knuckling the railing, my heart pounding I was sure my dad was going overboard to meet the hammerhead up close and personal. Absolutely terrifying!

Anyways, it's a good story and my dad was a good man so I thought I'd share it.

Check this out, guys. Right in my old fishing grounds. When those Hammerheads start running they are stunning. One day with my dad we hooked and released 3 7 footers and pulled the bait (blue runners) away from 3 more 'cause we were tired of fooling with them.

Then another day in our 24 ft. Seabird the family went out Boca Raton inlet. Got out a ways (120 ft depth) and put 2 live blue runners in outriggers. Beautiful smooth summer day. After a bit I looked back and saw a monster shark heading toward the baits. 

I reeled both lines in, pulling the baits away from the shark, which as it got closer turned out to be a hammerhead, length LONG but unknown at that point. 

Now get this: We were at the south end of Boca, in front of the inlet. I sped north, planed out, until I was at the north end of Boca (Spanish River Park - 40th St. area) and slowed down to live-bait dragging speed (idle). The boat had a soft top which we gathered up and leaned forward on the windshield edge. I put one bait out and was in the process of tossing the other when I heard the snap. I knew what it was but didn't believe it. I spun around and sure enough, that big shark had eaten the bait I just put out. He had followed me about 3 miles and the boat was planed out.

Long story short - he headed east and I backed up a ways but with a 2 ft. sea the boat was taking too much water so I spun it around and, since the top was down, I ran the boat and hung on with him (or her) out of the front. I turned the wheel over to my wife Ann, told the kids to hang on and throttled up so that I could run the fish down and get my line back. Lots of luck. He just continued it head out, taking line as I increased speed.

It was really a sight because he was on the surface in a 2 ft. sea and his hammerhead, being over 4 ft. wide, was throwing spray like an old aquaplane. He pulled me like that a couple of miles until he slowed down and we managed to pull up on him, idling. Ann was super excited and shaking all over because it is not every day that a person gets drugged partway to Bimini by a huge shark and is able to steer the boat that runs him down.

He was still out front a few feet and I was trying to cut the line with fishing pliers but everything was kind of bouncing around when he took things in his own hands and swam back under the boat, dragging the line against the boat chine so that the rough edge wore through the line and it snapped. 

Now, he stopped right behind the transom and looked at us gathered in the stern. Everybody aboard estimated that he was as long as the boat. A beautiful shark, to be sure. 

Although I am sure he was not 24 feet long, I would have to guess that he was around 14-15 feet. I found out later that the local captains had been seeing a monster hammerhead out there and had a name for him, which I can't recall, but he was a big fish.

The above image was created with ChatGPT. This was probably around 1973, so know viral video of the event. Lol.