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Bull Shark?

35K views 55 replies 40 participants last post by  R&Jonthebay 
G
#1 ·
:eek2:Crabbing in Nanticoke on Sunday along Elliott island side using trot line baited with fowl necks. A school of baitfish erupted in front of the boat with hundreds of small fish jumping 3-4 feet out of the water. It was a large school and I watched it as it went by. Suddenly a dark body about 7-8 feet long came ripping through this school and dissappeared as fast at it appeared. I have seen sharks before and this looked like a dark colored shark, almost black as opposed to the gray of a mako or hammerhead. I have never seen a shark in the Chesapeake much less the Nanticoke but have been told over the years there are plenty of bull sharks in the Bay. This fish was large and had the tell tale dorsal of a large shark. Having seen what I believe to be a shark has anybody else seen these critters? More importantly - can they be targeted by fisherman?:
 
#3 ·
Scuba diver Skip says - There are never,ever any Bull sharks in the bay - never :D.

Fisherman Skip says - Bull sharks are known to be as far north as Love Point some years. They are one of the few sharks that can go into brackish - even fresh water. Most shark populations are way down - one reason we are seeing some many Cownose rays. The sharks eat Rays. Bulls can be targeted - a live 12-18 inch Bluefish would be best. It would be best to release the shark rather then kill it.
 
#6 ·
Scuba diver Skip says - There are never,ever any Bull sharks in the bay - never :D.

Fisherman Skip says - Bull sharks are known to be as far north as Love Point some years. They are one of the few sharks that can go into brackish - even fresh water. Most shark populations are way down - one reason we are seeing some many Cownose rays. The sharks eat Rays. Bulls can be targeted - a live 12-18 inch Bluefish would be best. It would be best to release the shark rather then kill it.
But Diver Skip says kill 'em all (even if they don't exist).
 
#5 ·
Ive seen a Bull shark up close in the bay .It was maybe 10 years ago ,it was picked up in a comercial net off Hoopers Island by a friend of mine . As a matter of fact he has picked up many sharks over the years of different types and sizes . This particular one was about 5 feet long . I am a master diver with over 1000 open water dives , I have seen plenty of sharks it was a Bull shark . They get to feeding and lose track of where they are and keep following the food . I rarely disagree with Skip , he has forgotten more about fishing then I will ever know , but that one , ten years ago , was a Bull .
 
#7 ·
Aldefeo - Oh , I know they are in the bay , in fact about 20 years ago a large Bull was caught off Sandy Point. As soon as I heard about it I fished the next few nights for them but had no strikes. That year many fishermen brought up half Rockfish that were nice sized. No other fish other then a shark could bite a 30 incher in two that easy.

Bulls are always in the way back corner of my mind when diving in the bay. With near zero visibitily and the Bulls nasty attitude - it is a recipe to get bit. I play the odds that there are only a few Bulls in the bay and I'm not in underwater more then 3-4 hours a week.

Three years ago off Hacketts in 30 feet - I aborted a dive. Had a very ominous feeling something big and mean was down there with me. Never had that feeling before or after - even when I can see the sharks like out in the ocean.

When the Cownose rays bump into me - my first thought is always a Bull shark. First time it happened - I damn near swallowed my regulator :D.
 
#8 · (Edited)
I have posted this account in years past . I will do so again . Before I do , let me say I have seen a very large bull shark back in the early 90's in the Patuxent River near Solomons . . Bobby Ford is the other guy in the picture and I've known him for a long time and have discussed this story with him on numerous occasions :From "Grumpop" on SOL : I've done some searching and finally found it. This is the monster bull shark we caught in the mouth of the Nanticoke River and about which I have written on prior occasions. As I said before I would never do it twice! The photo was taken in Bobby Ford's Garage on Mt. Vernon Road, Princess Anne, Md. Ford, the best fisherman I've known, is on the left.

.First thing to say on that is that bulls are real real dangerous critters. They thrive in the shallowest waters and even fresh waters. They are incredibly aggressive and in the Bahamas where I bonefish the native population never swims even in the gin clearest and shallowest waters in the middle of the day without a wary eye out at all times for a bull. They don't circle and cautiously approach like in National Geographic. They come fast, straight, and hard to eat you if that is what they decide to do. I have been reading all summer of the sharking adventures on here and I'm amazed that I haven't read of a single bull in all that time. Then again they may be the ones accounting for the descriptions of the sharks easily pulling away from all efforts to hold one.
Anyhow we did this in the summer because we were bored with summer fishing. The trout fihermen off Deal Island were reporting lots of half cut trout coming up. We brought what we thought was a good strong shark rod on board. As soon as we arrived on the scene a guy in another boat offered us a live bluefish of about 4 pounds. I hooked it in the dorsal and my buddy began to drop the anchor. While the anchor was still dropping I was paying out line and there was a thud and then a steady walking off of the line. The blue had not made it 10 yards out of the back of the boat. I remember thinking "Boy these little fish stealers must be thick in here." So he stops dropping the anchor and I flip the lever and stick him two, three, or four times real hard. And off he goes steady but not screaming. Our first task was to clear the flotilla of trout fishing boats which we did. It was 600 pm and hot hot.
So now master angler here is going to set up on this toothy stealer and whip him but quick. And I did to the point that my arms and upper body were quivering. I was exhausted in the heat but I remember announcing "I've got 'em comin' my way now" as I could see that he was coming to the surface about 30 yards from the boat. When he came to the surface our mouths dropped open. He looked like a submarine surfacing and surprisingly brown. He looked much longer than the 13 feet he later measured and 345 lbs. he later weighed as crazy as that sounds. It was right then that I realized that he had been towing around our 23' boat and not the other way around. The only smart thing to have done would have been to cut him off right then and there. But we did everything except make that smart decision. See no one had ever even heard of a shark like that in that area of the bay and we were not going to be stuck for life telling the unbelievable "fish story" of the shark we lost big as a submarine. "Yeah, right. Grab these boys another beer. That's some story." There is much more to tell between 600 pm and 400 am about all this which includes how that shark traveled and clung to the deepest water available to him at all times. How I came to discover how many handguns are on boats in the lower Chesapeake in the middle of a weekday night. See my buddy likes adult beverages and became convinced that we needed to shoot the shark. Lots of people out there thought the same thing and they had the weaponry. I was sober and was the only voice saying that if we kill it with a gun it will sink and it obviously weighs far in excess of your line breaking strength and we'll lose it. We only went my way on this one because of bad aim and not because of a good persuasive argument. At one point I thought I was going ot get killed by a bullet glancing off the surface. When we finally landed the shark you could see that at least one bullet entered his head but it seemed to have no impact on him. The reel completely blew up (a big Penn, and I never had one of theirs fail before or since) when the bearings went at about 200 am. We landed this creature in the shallow water near South Marsh Island at about 400 am. by tying a rope to his tail and hauling him into the boat with about 4 or 5 people. We took pictures of us with him hanging from a chain lift in a car garage and during one of those at about dawn he swung his head in my direction. Unbelievable. As we had no gimbel I was black and blue from the butt of the rod for weeks. I slept all that next day and had to take off the day after that. I have the jaws which you can step into up to your waist. I've said many times since that it was like being hooked to the devil himself. And that story ended any interest I had in landing a shark. Swim on. I can't swear to it but I'm almost sure it was 1985. At that time I fished religiously places like Bloodsworth Island, Adams Island, Holland's Island, South Marsh Island, Nanticoke and Wicomico Rivers, Tangier Island, Smith Island, Fox Island, and Parker's Island in the Chesterpeake; as well as Cedar and Hog Islands on the Virginia Barrier Islands, first and foremost a red drum fisherman who could never get enough of it. I don't do that anymore but still like to read of it on here complete with great pictures like Alan Sklar's recent shots. I remember seeing Bob and the other Jacksons of Ocean City very often on one barrier island. I always thought that if people were leaving Ocean City to fish other surfs those other surfs must be real good and they were.
One last thing. Catching that bull shark where he wasn't supposed to be has made me much more cautious as a wade fisherman ever since. Every time I see somebody fishing with dead fish tied to them I get the chills.
 
#22 ·
I have posted this account in years past . I will do so again . Before I do , let me say I have seen a very large bull shark back in the early 90's in the Patuxent River near Solomons ......
Me too. My dad used to take us fishing out of Solomons and while he retrieved the boat my brother and I would mess around in the water next to the pier. I had waded out to just below my chin when I saw the dorsal fin of a shark surface in the deep channel of the river. It was moving pretty fast and headed up-stream. Of course I did my best to get out of the water as fast as I could but I was so deep it took forever to get out.

I haven't taken a swim in anything other than a swimming pool ever since.

-JB
 
#9 ·
The bull shark is the only shark than can live in fresh water. I saw an episode on National Geographic that filmed them way up the Amazon River.I am sure there are sharks in the bay and rivers but they seldom come in contact with people.They like fish better:clap:.......Gary
 
#40 ·
They aren't the only ones, but they are the ones in waters around here. I have heard stories from oldsters in my family about huge sharks in Curtis Creek, and the Patapsaco as far up as bellegrove of large sharks. My grandfather was a member of several fishing clubs in the 50s and 60s and told us on several occasions of catching bull sharks while trolling live eels for rock around Baltimore light, the mouth of the Magothy, around love point and around the bay bridge. He has pictures of an 8 foot hammer head that was caught at the mouth of the Choptank in 1954, and numerous pics of sharks that were caught in the upper bay from the bay bridge, to as far north as the mouth of the gun powder, some were huge.

According to biologists, the Chesapeake bay is a shark nursery and I can see why. I personally have seen sharks over 10 feet long in the lower bay and I don't see why there is a reason why some wouldn't find their way up north. They are just following the food source
 
#14 ·
Good story, Rock. I look forward to that post/pic each year.



Regarding the Severn, I think that I also post my (less interesting and not as well documented) stories each year that this topic comes up (right on schedule this year). I saw a bona fide shark on Tolly Pt. in August 1993. It swam between about four boats -- we all saw it, were yelling shark, etc. It wasn't a ray. The dorsal, part of the back and tail were all very visible and it lazily swam in an "S" pattern right by us. As for size, maybe 5ft, but I don't really know.

The following July, I hooked up with something BIG while chumming the same spot. I never saw a fin, but the animal again made a very large "S"-shaped disturbance and huge boil before heading under the boat, bumping the bottom with a big thud and cutting the line. I recall sitting down for a few minutes since my legs were shaking too much to stand.

My parents swear that they saw a shark in Round Bay about two years ago. Although they do not fish and are therefore more prone to mistake a ray for a shark, both my dad and mom (who would normally scoff ay any shark story) are adamant that it was not a ray but clearly a shark. Who knows, but the Severn certainly has no barrier to prevent a shark from entering it, and since Bulls are reported to frequent turbid, brackish rivers that contain a lot of food, why not the Severn (or Magothy, Choptank, Pax, etc.)?
 
#18 ·
I had a friend on vacation last week July 7-10 fishing the shipping channel area off of Wolftrap light down to the York spits and they hooked six sharks over a three day period. 5-6' in length. They thought two were Makos but not 100% sure since they have never caught sharks before. With the wet weather I thoght the salinity was down but it has dreid out a good bit recently.
 
#19 ·
That's a big critter in that pic, but I don't think that's a 13' shark. It's hard to judge by the pic though, but I've seen bulls of comparable size pulled in from the hook south of Cape Point.

Also, there are no Mako's in the bay, especially not at York Spit. Possibly a sandbar or bull. Mako's are a pelagic shark species.
 
#24 ·
That's a big critter in that pic, but I don't think that's a 13' shark. It's hard to judge by the pic though, but I've seen bulls of comparable size pulled in from the hook south of Cape Point.

Also, there are no Mako's in the bay, especially not at York Spit. Possibly a sandbar or bull. Mako's are a pelagic shark species.
I have to agree with you as to ever finding a mako that far inshore , never happen ! As far as the shark in the pic being 13' , I am only reprinting the angler's story . I do however , know Bobby Ford pretty well and he is a legend in these parts . I still see him from time to time when I'm putting in at Mount Vernon . He is not a man of many words but on the few times I've discussed this with him he has verified the story . Bobby could smell a trayt from a mile away , that I'm sure of !:yes::thumbup: He doesn't brag about anything . He is old and gray now but still gets out on the water as much as possible .
 
#20 · (Edited)
Search the records and you will see that the largest Bull Shark ever caught in the Bay was caught at Love Pt.

"The maximum reported length of the bull shark is 11.5 feet, and it weighed over 500 pounds. On Aug. 26, 1987, The Baltimore Sun reported that a man had caught a 420-pound, 8 1/2-foot bull shark while fishing around the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Similar catches have been reported as far north as Aberdeen, up near the mouth of the Susquehanna River."
 
#23 ·
I was kayaking with the wife off Wades Point a couple of summers ago and saw one break the surface. It was 5-6 foot. thought it might be a ray but I'm pretty sure not. I wanted to look more closely:fishing2: but da wife would have no part of it it a low water tandem kayak:eek2:.

BTW that Wades Point Inn is a nice place to bring SWMBO as a treat. Punches the fishing ticket nicely:D
 
#25 ·
This comes up every year. (sometimes twice) This is the first time that I remember that there weren't, at least, one post per page accusing everyone of seeing things. I guess that the popularity of shark shows on Discovery, etc. has finally convinced the skeptics that the first hand accounts, (by seasoned bay fishermen) photos, commercial net catches, etc are not all made up. This post may shake one out of the bushes.
 
#28 ·
Seems to come up even more than that . Like I said , I saw a huge bull shark on the southern side of the Patuxent , almost directly across from Bunky's . I was in a rental skiff , one of the smaller v-hulls they had in those days . My boss was with me passed out in the bow :eek2: (Hard partying the night before) . I was drifting a live croaker trying to catch another rockfish when , out of my peripheral vision , comes a very large dark shadow . It surprised me to the fact that I wasn't sure what I was seeing . When I truly realized that it was a huge bull shark I started screaming at Dave , reeled up my bait and tried to pull start the motor . Dave thought I was BS'ing him and it took a sec before I had to choke the motor . Within 45 seconds it swam away up river . I was in a 16' boat and this fish was easily 3/4 the size . This is no effin' S###5 . I tried like heck to snap a pic but to no avail . I don't really care what anyone says about the presence of sharks in the bay , there are plenty of species that inhabit our portions and it really shouldn't be a surprise . I have done alot of fishing in the lower Tangier and upper Pocomoke Sounds and caught all kinds of sharks , including smallish bulls . Ask any crabber down this way if he hasn't had some kind of encounter .:yes:
 
#26 ·
I'm not bashing you or the guy, just don't think from the look of the photo that that is a 13' bull shark. That's a BIG bull shark by any stretch of the imagination. I would be inclined to think that a 13 footer would also weigh more than 345 pounds. Just basing my speculation on other sharks I've seen and other comparable species. A 13' mako would come out about 900-1000 pounds based on some of the records that are out there.

Either way, that's a hell of a catch, and I'd brag about it were I him. :thumbup: What's a fishing tale if you don't embellish a bit. :D
 
#30 ·
What did most folks do with sheet like that in those days ? What ? Were you a big catch and release guy in those days buddy ? Ignorance is what it is . Old enough to remember the Weakfish run in Delaware Bay ? Try being more concerned with something like that , total destruction of a spawning population . I can remember seeing 50 gallon drums of friggin' trayt and blues rotting in the sun at the Lewes Wharf . Don't get me started Russ !:D:yes: Have to take it outside ! (BS board) !:clapping2: I might have to hit you upside the head with a nipple !:yes::hysterical::roflguy:
 
#35 ·
A friend of mine claims to have had a large shark run off his bluefish 10 yrs ago at the bay bridge.

Unrelated to the bay, I was fishing under a bridge near Marathon Fla last winter and decided to go for a quick dip since it was upper 90s. The area between the first bridge abutment and the shore was only 15 ft wide and 4 ft deep.

Had taken off my shoes and shirt was about to jump in when a huge shark swam slowly past. It seemed to take up most of water column. Did not swim that day.
 
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