I went out this morning to my favorite spot behind Honeymoon Island off of Dunedin, Florida. Launched the kayak about dawn and immediately saw a pod of tarpon as I paddled out. All I had was a 6wt, so I figured it was pretty useless to cast at them. Just as I got to the flats, three cobia came by feeding on the surface. After several casts at them, they finally disappeared. After such an auspicious start, I figured it would be a good day. Well, never caught a fish, but a greater treat was coming.
I started working back to an oyster bar and a huge shark glided right past the kayak. He was heading the opposite direction, but was only about 6 feet away. Comparing it to the kayak, if judged it to be slightly longer than half the length of the kayak, or about 8 to 9 feet. I stopped and turned to get a cast at it with the spinning rod, but it wasn’t interested. At this point, I figured I would hang around a while to get another look at it. As I sat, dead in the water, a second shark, slightly smaller swam right under my bow. If you’ve ever seen a shark in the water, they seem to glide along, making hardly a wake, and I was in about two feet of water.
I am facinated by sharks and I knew these two weren’t bull sharks so I was not too worried. I decided to hang around a little longer to see if I could find them again. Boy did I. Both sharks were lying on the bottom next to each other. All I can imagine is that they were mating. I drifted around them for about twenty minutes taking a few pictures. Although the water was only a couple of feet deep, it was a little cloudy, but I did get a couple of good shots.