# Inside a Bait Ball



## Orion45 (Jun 26, 2008)

<P style="BACKGROUND: white"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #1f5080; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Went spearfishing with a couple of friends yesterday. We hit the Penhall Artificial Reef and decided to chase the bubbles rather than anchoring. On the first dive, two of my buddies went down while I ran the boat. Both divers were wearing Shark Shields. After surfacing, they reported an encounter with an 8+ foot bull shark. One of the divers reported not even seeing the shark until it veered off about 6 feet away. Both of the divers had fish on their stringers.It was now my turn to dive, I suited up, turned on my Shark Shield and rolled off the boat. Hit the bottom with visibility looked of 25 - 30 feet. Lots of legal snapper and a large number of juvenile AJs were everywhere. No bull shark anywhere to be seen. Put a snapper on my stringer and as I was cocking my spear gun, I see thishuge mass, barely visible, in the distance. Mr. Grey Suit had arrived. No problem I thought, I have my Shark Shield. Although ittook me a while to notice, somethingstrange was happening. Something I had never experienced before. The jacks appeared to be closing in around me making it difficult to shoot any snappers. I have been inschools of small bait fish before. Schools sometimes so dense, that itbecame nearly impossible to spearfish. However, Ihad never experienced this withjuvenile jacks. Yes, I've had large schools of juvenilejacks swim back and forth, someat very close range, but never in a circle around me. All of a sudden, the reason for this behavior became evident. A second bull shark, same size or larger had arrived. Here Iam at 85', by myself, with a bleeding fish on my stringer surrounded by two large bull sharks. I decided to putthe Shark Shield tothe test. I'm standing on the sand close to some rubble when I got the chance to pop another snapper very close in front of one of the bull sharks. The shark appeared to head toward the snapper but I quickly pulled the spear closer and the shark remained at least 12-15' away. Unfortunately, I had gut shot this snapper and the spear had gone all the way through. Needless to say, blood and guts were floating all around. As I was stringing the snapper and reloading my gun, I notice that the AJs were now in my face, all around and above me. The two bull sharks were still circling me and making direct runs at me but neither gotany closer than about 9'. Theyappeared agitated and I was relieved each time one of the sharks abruptly veered away from me. It was obvious the sharks wanted to get a lot closer.As the sharks got closer, the jacks would scatter and reform after the shark had moved away. The sharks did not seem to be interested in the jacks.I check my pressure gauge andreadapproximately 1300 lbs of air remaining and since Ihave my19 cf pony, air is not aproblem. Still time to shoot another snapper and limit the boat out. The only problem is, I can't see any snapper close by and the jacks are still swimming circles all around me.It was time to go up. In preparation for surfacing, I decided to go up about 10-12'and see what would happen. I figured if the sharks were to get any closer,I would rather find out now than later, in mid water. I could still drop the snappers and swim away. As I ascended andhovered about 12' above the sand,some of the jacks moved below me and now, I found myself inside aquasi bait ball. Again, this is not a bait ball with thousands of fish but a school ofseveral dozens of jacks. Since the sharks did not decide to get any closer but rather had not made any more moves towards me, I decided to keep the snapper and head for the surface. The jacks did not followand remained swimming in a circle. I just wish I had a camera with me, two large bull sharks swimming in circles around a bunchof jacks. I continued my ascent spiraling towards the surface just in case one of the sharks decided to follow - which they did not. Needless to say,with the pucker factor reaching into the upper limits, I saw no reason to perform a safety stop since I knew I would not be off-gassing anything in the near future. :doh<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o><P style="BACKGROUND: white"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #1f5080; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">All I have to say is: *Shark Shield does work*. <o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o></o>


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## Kim (Aug 5, 2008)

I read a review on the shark shield and I have to admit that your narrative was much better than the review. Which shops carry them or did you order direct??

Kim


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## Greenjeans (Jul 6, 2008)

Great Report. I did over 400 dives in the Caribbean back in the late 90s and only ever saw 2 sharks.. Seems like you guys see the a lot more here in the Gulf. Way to keep your cool in a tense situation.


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## Orion45 (Jun 26, 2008)

> *Kim (7/20/2009)*I read a review on the shark shield and I have to admit that your narrative was much better than the review. Which shops carry them or did you order direct??
> 
> Kim


Most of the dive shops probably can order the for you or you can order it from an online distributor. By the way, I've been diving with the Shark Shield for over over a year now and have hadseveral similar experiences (sentence edited for clarity} The Shark Shield claims an effective range of 3 - 5 meters. However, they do have the standard disclaimer about diving with sharks... etc. All myencounters, that I have been aware of,have been with bull sharks. I believe the bull shark is on of the topfour most dangerous sharks to humans. I haven'ttried hanging around in blue water in the GOM with aShark Shield aroundmy leg and a chum ball in my hand. Although it would be interesting to hang a chunk of bait from a boatclose to a Shark Shield with a shark nearby in the feeding mode.


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## UnderWater Angler (Jul 18, 2008)

I had about the same thing happen to me today. Large school of small AJ's swarming around me after I shot a trigger, it was weird, some were less than a foot away swimming in and out my line. Some bigger ones moved in with one being a monster, little too big for me to shoot with nothing to hold onto. 



But what was real strange is a little later a bull about 5' bumped me as I was moving down the edge of the wreck. I did not even see him come in, just felt a hard bump against my legs and looked to see a damn shark swimming away. Needless to say I got things ready to get outta the water. Luckily I had noticed a grey suit swimming out in the shadows so I had just dropped my stringer at the anchor line before this happened!


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## arch_diver (Feb 26, 2009)

Kim,



I know that Fritz @ MBT either has them/or can order a shark shield for you. I have not had the need to use one, but they seem to work!


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## Florabama (Oct 19, 2007)

Wow! Great report. There are no words to describe the feeling you get when you see a big bull up close and personal, and being by yourself had to send the BP through the roof. I know having the SS made you feel better.I've never considered a Shark Shield before, but everyone who has used them, swears by them.


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## true-king (Oct 2, 2007)

Wow, crazy story. I've noticed there have been a lot of sharks at the penhall and other reefs in the area.


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## need2fish (Oct 2, 2007)

Great story! Sounds like SS really works.


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## CrazyPFD (May 7, 2008)

I had a bull shark bump me at the Pete Tide last fall. It was my first time spearfishing, and i had a bag of bloody fish at the anchor. This bull bumped me immediately after I speared a red snapper. I was located on the sandy bottomnext to the pete tide.I had a little over 1000psi before the bump, and the time I got to the anchor to go up(located at the center of ship 40ft away), I only had 300psi of air. The shark bump wasn't a pleasant feeling. It felt like my heart was beating outside my body.My uncle's friendwas at the anchor line with me, I signaled low air to him and thenthumbed upto start our ascent. I go up first about 10ft. then looked down to see myhim still on the ship messin with his mask. I had about 100psi at this point.

I had to make a decision to either go up, and run out of air orswim towardhim and buddy breathe. I swam towardhim pissed at this point cause he didn't follow me up. As I approached him, my regulators started sucking toward my face. I was a little frightened at this point but still pissed. I went up to him and grabbed his octopus and started breathing off of that. I grabbed his gauges, held the regs in my mouth, and was watching his air as well as my computer. He was still having issues with his mask, and wasn't helping me swim at all. This guy is at least 275lbs. I'm 185lbs, and I started pulling him up by his octo and his gauges. In my mind, I was saying, I am not going to die down here. I stayed calm and made it to the surface. As I got into the boat I was extremely mad the entire ride into sherman cove. I will never dive with my uncles buddy. It was in a way a good learning experience for me but pretty frightening. 

Since then, I have seen many sharks spearfishing, and as wierd as it may seem, I'm starting to not be freaked out by them. I'm still getting a powerhead, but you start to figure out that they are there for your catch, not you.


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## FishinFL (Sep 30, 2007)

Thanks for the great post orion!! I'v been diving in schools of small cigs and their movement gave me a quick spell of vertigo. I had to swim out of the bait to get my bearings. That, and its kind freaky when the bait shoots out away from you when a king runs through....



Mr Dodds, HOW can you be mad at someone that saved YOUR ass when YOU ran out of air?? LOL.

We were reading the post at the firestation and Deas said you should change you login name to _RESCUE ME_! That was pretty funny if i must say so!!



Thanks again for the detailed post!!!!

Sea ya, Reese


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## ScullsMcNasty (Oct 4, 2007)

really cool!! i could visualize what you were talkin about cause of all the detail! thanks


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## Jarhead (Jul 3, 2008)

yeah, the first few sharks you see will make your heart feel like it's beating out of your chest. But after a while you get over that. It was gettingto the point where I thought I was getting too comfortable with them in the water. Easy to make a mistake when you're overly confident. I saw big bulls almost every dive last year but none this year. I haven't been diving much this summer so maybe that's why.. I have been told to NEVER give up your catch to a shark though. Maybe you guys have a different take on this topic. Dropping your fish (so I've been told) cause the sharks to associate divers with a meal. The next diver could end up the meal if he has no fish to give up. Or, once the shark is done with your catch he could come after you.. I've had to kick a few and stab some with my spear but they always got the point and backed off.. Never gave up my fish though.. What do you guys think?

Great post and be careful out there.


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