500lb bull shark caught off texas coast while wade fishing

[Night Wing]

Great photo of the tiger shark. Knowing large bull and tiger sharks can be caught from the beach would deter me from wade fishing the bars from the beach. I don't care what the odds are compared to lightning.

[Jolly Roger]

Great photo of the tiger shark. Knowing large bull and tiger sharks can be caught from the beach would deter me from wade fishing the bars from the beach. I don't care what the odds are compared to lightning.

I always here that, yet the same people will go backpacking up some bear infested mountain. Go figure.

[Barnacle Bill]

I've never had a problem with them other then the occassional stringer snatching but that's what they're programmed to do so I don't hold it against them.

As for catching that huge shark, I wish they hadn't killed it. I love to eat shark, especially Blacktip and Mako but I don't keep BT's much over 36" and we've kept Mako around 5' and smaller for the grill.

What they did was legal though so just like I don't blame the shark for snatching a fish or two from my stringer, I don't blame those yokels for keeping what is legal whether I personally agree with it or not.

[noskunks]

Great photo of the tiger shark. Knowing large bull and tiger sharks can be caught from the beach would deter me from wade fishing the bars from the beach. I don't care what the odds are compared to lightning.

I have to agree, everybody can be struck by lighting, I think the odds of being bit by a shark are way higher among those that are actually in the shark's habitat so that's a flawed stat to begin with.

[Barnacle Bill]

If you're in dirty water with low vis and a bunch of bait fish in your area, you MIGHT get bitten... 1 in 10,000,000 chance or sumthin'... If you're in low vis water and splashing around, you MIGHT get bitten but not likely. I've waded the surf for years and never come close to being bitten by a shark. I've seen some pretty good sized ones swimming in my area when I've been wade fishing, even had a 6'+ Bull shark follow a trout I was reeling in then steal it when it was about 10' from me. It startled me a bit but I didn't move and he swam on about his way chomping my fish or what had been my fish and was subsequently his.
I've also had them take fish from my stringer so I started using a donut.. One day a couple of sharks thought it would be fun to tear it to shreds to get at my fish and they had a good time. Now I take each fish I catch back to the beach if I'm wade fishing.
I'm more scared of fishing the bays than anything else. Vibrio, stingrays, etc... Yeah yeah.. I know there are stingrays in the surf but as long as you don't retrace your steps, you're usually ok and always two-step. I've shuffled far more rays in the bays than I have in the surf. And I ain't never hit a friggin' oyster reef in the surf.

[Jolly Roger]

Great photo of the tiger shark. Knowing large bull and tiger sharks can be caught from the beach would deter me from wade fishing the bars from the beach. I don't care what the odds are compared to lightning.

I have to agree, everybody can be struck by lighting, I think the odds of being bit by a shark are way higher among those that are actually in the shark's habitat so that's a flawed stat to begin with.

Most everything kills more people then sharks. Last death from a shark in Texas was 50 years ago.

hammers kill more people then sharks, pen tops kill more people then sharks, you can insert most any item you want, and it has killed more people then sharks.

But some people just fear animals that can eat them.

[Lowrider]

cool pics from fla. - nice sombrero

[T-Bart]

It sounds contradictory, but I see what he's going for. His point is that they're observable, and that they frequent a lot of the waters that we fish and swim in. But he's right, shark populations, nearshore or otherwise, are being decimated. Part of the reason was negative publicity and the movie Jaws. Also, sharks don't bounce back as quickly as other fish, because they're long-living, with low fecundity (not many babies). So killing one shark does exponentially more harm than killing one trout or redfish.

For a state record, it's a grey area, I don't know if I'd release it or bring it in. I guess I'll just have to wait and find out .

Also, I think if you wade fish that you assume a certain amount of risk. I mean, holy smokes, you walk around in chest deep water with dying fish on a wire cable and shrimp in a plastic bucket.

[p911gt2]

It sounds contradictory, but I see what he's going for. His point is that they're observable, and that they frequent a lot of the waters that we fish and swim in. But he's right, shark populations, nearshore or otherwise, are being decimated. Part of the reason was negative publicity and the movie Jaws. Also, sharks don't bounce back as quickly as other fish, because they're long-living, with low fecundity (not many babies). So killing one shark does exponentially more harm than killing one trout or redfish.

For a state record, it's a grey area, I don't know if I'd release it or bring it in. I guess I'll just have to wait and find out .

Also, I think if you wade fish that you assume a certain amount of risk. I mean, holy smokes, you walk around in chest deep water with dying fish on a wire cable and shrimp in a plastic bucket.

exactly

[Strider]

But some people just fear animals that can eat them

Heck, when I had my heart attack the doc told me it came from animals I was eating

Kim

[redman101]

Dang!! That's a BIG shark I wonder how long it took it to grow that big??? Next to the "great whites" the bull is quite aggresive and will easily chomp on a human. My friend "shark-bait" will attest to that! That's why I stays in the shallows, really, really shallow For real! My advise, "stay in the shallows" near the grass lines.

RM

[el panzon]

I have tried to catch a shark with my boys on 2 occassions now with no luck. Once in Port A and another time in Destin, FL.

No luck yet but I have full intentions of releasing the shark(s)...I heard you should not bring them in too far on dry sand as their own weight would crush their vital organs...so you are supposed to leave them in a bit of water, how much I don't remember.

The pics submitted look like they are sitting on hard sand. They all swam away OK?

Just curious for future reference.

[Jesse Lee]

It kind of sucks that they had to kill that big of a shark just so they could say... look what I caught... I doubt they ate any part of it.

Totally agree with you!! Thats a beast, and he should have stayed in the water. What a shame.

[DirtyMike]

To me it just depends on what they do with the shark after. Use it for something. Study it or something. Dont just toss it.

[Fish Tales]

Does anyone know where the tigers were caught?

[noskunks]

of course you are taking a certain amount of risk when fishing, or driving, or getting out of bed. I just don't think this is like the 70's and 80's where people were killing every shark they caught. Think about it, how many pictures of dead sharks in the U.S. do you see now? Most people release them, and it looks like there are plenty of them so if someone wants to keep one they feel is a trophy and aren't breaking the law who cares. Again, I personally would not keep one (unless it was a record or something) One of the first sharks I ever caught was estimated 7' of the end of BHP and we cut it loose for fear of injuring it while getting it completely landed. But I don't see the harm if someone else wants to keep one. It isn't going to desimate the population.

[YaknAustin]

Most everything kills more people then sharks. Last death from a shark in Texas was 50 years ago.

I thought there was a girl killed by a shark in the late 80's or early 90's? I think it was either Port A or Padre Island and she was on her period.

[oceanblue]

I had taken a wade fishing trip 2 days prior in the same spot, near Traylor island, we actually had heard from our guide Blake Muirwood that sharks had been bad....so we are out about sun up and I am maybe 50 yards off the shore fishing out towards the bay when a porpoise decides to surface and blast out right behind me, lets just say I had a pucker moment.
We got a good laugh out of the shark catch when we heard the news.

Has anyone heard of a 565lb bull shark that was caught off the Texas coast while wade fishing recently? My brother said he heard it on the radio here in austin on one of the fishing shows. Cant seem to find a news article anywhere on the web about it. He couldnt remember where it was caught.

[oceanblue]

I know that girl...her name is April and she went to school in Llano Texas where my grandparents used to have a place...messed her arm up real bad but she is still alive and well. I think that was in about 1986.

EDIT...ok she was from Kingsland near Llano and it was 1987, here is the article

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.h ... A961948260

Most everything kills more people then sharks. Last death from a shark in Texas was 50 years ago.

I thought there was a girl killed by a shark in the late 80's or early 90's? I think it was either Port A or Padre Island and she was on her period.

[Jolly Roger]

Most everything kills more people then sharks. Last death from a shark in Texas was 50 years ago.

I thought there was a girl killed by a shark in the late 80's or early 90's? I think it was either Port A or Padre Island and she was on her period.

last person killed by a shark in Texas was in 62'.

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks/st ... pTexas.htm




I often comapre shark attacks to bear attacks because most everyone will tell you they will not go out into shark infested waters.

Yet millions of people backpack, camp and jog in areas known to be bear infested. Fly fishermen often share streams and rivers with a number of bears very near by, all large enough to kill them. I would figure not many fishermen would stand in the water with a 12' tiger shark swiming around.

The comparsion between bears and sharks is better then lightning. Lightning can hit a person most any place at any time. Yet sharks and bears you need to be in a specific place.

As fishermen our chance of shark attack go up, but if you look at the numbers. Fishermen make up a very small amount of the people attacked by sharks. In fact surfers tend to be one of the hot targets, with swimers being second.