Shark Fishing On The Beach : An exciting "Fish Story"!

We traveled to Destin, Florida in April for some paddling adventures and some good old fashioned "R & R". This is a kayak related "fish story" that we were lucky enough to witness. While we were in Destin, one of our favorite "R & R" activities was go for a walk on the beach a couple times a day. This particular evening beach walk was later than usual and the sun had already set. We often wondered if the fishermen we saw casting their lines from the beach ever caught anything, as we had never really seen anyone with "fish". But this evening we passed one fisherman whose pole was bent. He certainly had something on his line. We asked one of the people in his group what was going on and learned that he had been fishing for sharks and had something “BIG” on his line. He had been fishing all afternoon from his kayak and had caught several baitfish. At dusk he paddled out past the sandbar and cast his line into deeper waters, paddled back and put his pole on shore.

When we arrived he had been reeling in the fish for about 15 minutes. We had never seen anyone catch a shark so we decided to stay and see the outcome. It took another hour of reeling in the fish until it was finally in sight from the shore. It was really dark as a large flashlight beam scanned the water. What a sight to see when the white fin cut through the dark water. We couldn't help but wonder how they were going to land the shark or what they would do with it when they finally did. We found out that the 'plan' was to tie a rope around the tail to keep it under control, which, as it turned out, worked very well. By this time the shark was quite spent as it had been putting up quite a fight for over an hour. What a fish! It was a sand shark that must have been around 6 feet long. No one tried to pick it up to gauge it's weight! After several photos from the people that had gathered, the shark was released back into the black waters. The fisherman was a Destin area resident who had been fishing in the Gulf since he was a young boy. It was his first time to catch a shark and what a great adventure it was. We we're extremely excited to be witness to his historic accomplishment. It's a vacation memory we'll never forget!