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I was at 8 mile pocket beach in Galveston yesterday standing about waist deep just before the 3rd cut (about 60yds from shore) yesterday just doing some leisurely fishing in very murky brown gulf water when a shark surfaced about 10' from me and was at least 6-8' long.

I was ..."uhhhhhh... UH OH!!" and nervously laughed out loud as it swam past me then made a 1/2 turn back toward me surfaced again and disappeared. Normally Id have not been as concerned but this time against my better judgement I tied my floating bait bag to my shorts... I know dumb!!! So, I began backing up knowing I had to get through the 1st and 2nd cuts to get back to shore and watching to see if I could see it surface again. I backed up about 20 yds and saw my wife about 20 feet from me coming out to hang with me and I and asked her, Hey... You see that shark?!? She said "what sharrrr" and it surfaced again about where I had been initially. She is NOT a fan of not being at the top of the food chain and she bolted back to shore. Ha ha. If it was my 1st wife I'd have said, "here hold this for me", and politely asked her to please get me some more bait as I handed her my bait bag.

Needless to say as with my other encounters with them at Galveston it was uneventful and I saw it surface a few more times as it headed east toward Jamacia Beach.

It didnt stop me fishing because they're probably like spiders they're there a lot more than you think and a lot closer than you would like... But, still... I sure wish I had been carrying.

Medic624 wrote:I was at 8 mile pocket beach in Galveston yesterday standing about waist deep just before the 3rd cut (about 60yds from shore) yesterday just doing some leisurely fishing in very murky brown gulf water when a shark surfaced about 10' from me and was at least 6-8' long.

I was ..."uhhhhhh... UH OH!!" and nervously laughed out loud as it swam past me then made a 1/2 turn back toward me surfaced again and disappeared. Normally Id have not been as concerned but this time against my better judgement I tied my floating bait bag to my shorts... I know dumb!!! So, I began backing up knowing I had to get through the 1st and 2nd cuts to get back to shore and watching to see if I could see it surface again. I backed up about 20 yds and saw my wife about 20 feet from me coming out to hang with me and I and asked her, Hey... You see that shark?!? She said "what sharrrr" and it surfaced again about where I had been initially. She is NOT a fan of not being at the top of the food chain and she bolted back to shore. Ha ha. If it was my 1st wife I'd have said, "here hold this for me", and politely asked her to please get me some more bait as I handed her my bait bag.

Needless to say as with my other encounters with them at Galveston it was uneventful and I saw it surface a few more times as it headed east toward Jamacia Beach.

It didnt stop me fishing because they're probably like spiders they're there a lot more than you think and a lot closer than you would like... But, still... I sure wish I had been carrying.

Change your name to dinner.

Anygunanywhere

anygunanywhere wrote:
Change your name to dinner.

Anygunanywhere

I told the wife I'll do scubs when I can get an underwater chainsaw. Bring it sharkies!

last week she forwarded me an ad for an underwater chainsaw.

You should go to law school. Then you would be entitled to professional courtesy. Sharks never bothered me or my swim buddies in La Jolla or Coronado.

JALLEN wrote:You should go to law school. Then you would be entitled to professional courtesy. Sharks never bothered me or my swim buddies in La Jolla or Coronado.

Too late! I'm safe against sharks, vampires, and all bloodsucking creatures of the night.

When I was going to A&M back in the mid '70s, I had a neighbor across the street in College Station whose body was covered in scars from a shark attack in chest deep water in Galveston bay. He said a large shark (he said it was a tiger shark, but I have no clue if there are tiger sharks in that area or exactly how big this one was) came in straight at him, rolled on its side, and took part of his body and one arm in its mouth. His brother was right there and grabbed his other arm and fought with the fish for him. His brother succeeded in yanking him out of the shark's mouth, and they were able to make it back into shallow enough water and then onto the sand before the shark could make another pass at him. He had a bunch of scars, about 1" or so long as I recall, forming a big "C" shape on both the front and his back of his body, and across the part of his arm which would have been at the "open" end of the "C," and another scar on his other hand where he said he had tried to pry the shark's jaws off of him with his free arm while his brother was tugging on it.

This guy was maybe around 25-30 or so when I met him, and the shark attack had occurred when he was in high school. He joined the Navy after high school and served on a destroyer. Me, I would have joined the Army. When I met him, he was into flying and owned a restored Stearman which he was repairing after it got damaged in a wind storm that blew through the local airport.

They were a real nice family and had me over to dinner in their home on more than one occasion.

Shark steak!

JALLEN wrote:You should go to law school. Then you would be entitled to professional courtesy. Sharks never bothered me or my swim buddies in La Jolla or Coronado.

That might be because there more dolphins around there than sharks. I never saw one shark there, but lots of dolphins.

A gun wouldn't help against them, but I think you are in more danger from man 'o wars in Galveston than from sharks. I carried two scars across my foot for about 5 years after one just ran the tenticals across my foot. My uncle (step-father's brother, three years older than me) didn't fair so well. One (or more) got him all over the front and insides of his legs. He still limped about the time my scars faded. If he'd been skinny-dipping, I doubt I'd ever have had those three step-cousins!

Sharks make for scary movies and stories, but there are worse "water dangers".

When I lived in Houston, I was always fishing. Either wade fishing or off one of the piers.
Once while wade fishing, I had my 20' stringer tied to my belt loop and felt a tug. When I pulled it in, only a few heads were left.

I was fishing from what was the 61st street pier when it hat a "T head" late one night. A family with 2 boys about 12 and 13 years old came up next to me and asked if they could fish there. Said no problem. They had rented all of their tackle and was ready to go. Got to talking to the dad and found out they were from Missouri. About that time one of the young yelled that he had something. I watched as he brought in about a 10-12 inch shark. Now this shark had swallowed the hook and this boy was about to stick his fingers in to get the hook back when I asked him what he was doing. He told me that the fish had swallowed the hook. I told him he would lose some fingers if he stuck them in its mouth. He said "it's just a catfish" and I said "no, it's just a shark. His eyes got real big, and then he threw fish, rod reel and all over the side of the pier.

RPBrown wrote: His eyes got real big, and then he threw fish, rod reel and all over the side of the pier.

Ha!

C-dub wrote:

JALLEN wrote:You should go to law school. Then you would be entitled to professional courtesy. Sharks never bothered me or my swim buddies in La Jolla or Coronado.

That might be because there more dolphins around there than sharks. I never saw one shark there, but lots of dolphins.

There are a great many dolphins all right. Several years ago, though, a 3 man swim group was attacked and one was killed by a shark, off Del Mar, IIRC. Such events are rare but do happen, and every now and again, the lifeguards will clear out the Cove or Shores after a shark like sighting.

I used to catch sharks barge fishing in California in my youth. Small ones that were supposed to be harmless but still needed wire leader even though I was fishing for albacore. Barracuda also. All were thrown back in. To be honest I don't want to be in a situation where some dumb creature can turn around and eat me which is why I have a fear of the ocean. Had I been in your situation I would probably been close to death from fear. You are definitely a braver man than I am. What is it they say about concealed carry- don't get into bad situations that you can avoid. I love fishing too, from boats.

RPBrown wrote:When I lived in Houston, I was always fishing. Either wade fishing or off one of the piers.
Once while wade fishing, I had my 20' stringer tied to my belt loop and felt a tug. When I pulled it in, only a few heads were left.

I was fishing from what was the 61st street pier when it hat a "T head" late one night. A family with 2 boys about 12 and 13 years old came up next to me and asked if they could fish there. Said no problem. They had rented all of their tackle and was ready to go. Got to talking to the dad and found out they were from Missouri. About that time one of the young yelled that he had something. I watched as he brought in about a 10-12 inch shark. Now this shark had swallowed the hook and this boy was about to stick his fingers in to get the hook back when I asked him what he was doing. He told me that the fish had swallowed the hook. I told him he would lose some fingers if he stuck them in its mouth. He said "it's just a catfish" and I said "no, it's just a shark. His eyes got real big, and then he threw fish, rod reel and all over the side of the pier.

I used to fish that same pier growing up. I remember my step-dad catching a 5' sand shark there. I'm trying to find the photo, but I found one of my brother having caught a Ray:




I had some good times on that pier. I used to remember throwing cast nets in the waves right near the pier to get mullet for bait & selling it to others to pay our way on to the pier. ;)

I remember another time I had to walk back the quarter mile to the car for something & I was holding the keys & somehow dropped them. They landed perfectly on a cross member. I couldn't even fathom what would happen if they fell into the water!