Whale Shark Encounter

[DIRTYFOOT2]

Set up the drift in 140' just off the deep side of the eight mile reef on Sunday. Immediatley spotted a big hammerhead cruising the rip, and pods of bonito/skippies everywhere. Twenty minutes into the drift I see a giant looming shadow, that is easing right up on the stern of the boat. Then I started to make out the brown and white spots on this leviathian. It cruised up one side of the boat,rolling right just enough to eyeball the boat. The fish was easily 50' long and covered in cobia ranging from 10-50+ lbs I was awe struck. Forgot I was fishing for 30 seconds or so, completely captivated by the sight of this magnificent fish, and the swimming city of remoras, banded rudders, and cobia. Capt brought me back to earth as he handed the jig rod down from the bridge. The big fish stayed with the boat for about 5 mins, and unfortunately the barrage of six ounce egg sinkers, and horriffically backlashed boat rods from our danglers spooked the cobes. In all reality I was not at all disapointed we didn't get any of the fish. Just felt like I had seen one of the top five coolest things I'd ever seen offshore. I had never seen one before and, Capt. Rock said he's only seen 4 in 30 years of bieng offshore almost everyday. Feel super lucky to have seen one up close and personal. end of story

[ballyhu]

I was lucky enough to se the same thing about 5 years ago. We were fishing for kings in about 70' off Juno and the one we saw was also covered up with cobia. We managed to catch a couple. We were in a 22' center console and I can tell you we felt pretty small. Really an awesome sight.

[quack quack]

I had that happen to me off chub only no cobes.We were on the hook bottom fishing and it came right up to the transom.30ft ++ It stayed for at least 5 min.It started scratching its head on the edge of the transom.So I thought I would help scratch the itch.I picked up a deck brush and started to scrub its head.It loved it moving its head back and forth.Another time while running a boat from Key West to Cancun we came across a pod of 6 to 10 of them.Not big ones around 20 to 25ft.They were feeding in circles with there mouths open and sometimes coming out of the water.It was day break and flat calm about 80miles North of Cancun.

[2fastlx]

Very cool, saw one while sailfishing when I was 12. My friend's dad was in the tower and said there were some cobes on it, but all we caught off it were big yellowjacks.

[Tuna Devil]

That is awesome Butch.

I have had the pleasure a handful of times myself. Definetly ranks up there at the top of cool ocean experiences. Once we saw a giant one while Tuna fishing in Lydonia. While I am typing this I still can't believe how big it was.

[Relentless33]

Sweet

[iriesoul]

thats awesome man!

[Ivan11]

ive seen one once, i swear it was longer then my 20ft boat, and all i saw was the dorsal out of the water. we trolled by it but got nothing. when i turned to get closer it slowly went down down down =/ was freaking badass though =)

[PUMPKIN]

two sightings on my end:

#1 - was spearing hogs down off orange cay and spotted one swimming by in abour 45' of water; vis was not that good but pretty cool to be eye to eye with the behemoth.

#2 - coming back from cat cay three years ago, about 10 miles off key biscayne, spotted a single. she was covered with 10-15# yellowfins; we managed to catch 3 of them on live pilchards....

amazine creatures....

support greenpeace guys...the whales have been around a lot longer than us homo sapiens....(and no, im not a tree-hugger

[DORADOsteve]

VERY cool Butch!

I have yet to see my first, & want to snorkel with one.

The Basking sharks that I have seen are huge & impressive, but would be dwarfed by a whale shark.

One day

[PETRAFIED]

We ran into a pair on the NW corner of the Bahama bank. As they came up from the bottom, schools of blackfin came up with them. You could see the white water from miles away. Very cool creatures!

[miamiangler1]

support greenpeace guys...the whales have been around a lot longer than us homo sapiens....(and no, im not a tree-hugger[/quote]

Pumpkin ,,,Hate to tell you it`s not a whale ... but the largest shark in the world .. the only whale shark I got to see was back in the early 70`s when fishing was out of this world !

[pereopods]

Came across one on our way out to do some drops off Port Everglades January of this year. Blackfin were popping all around it eating minnows. Stuck my camera underwater and snapped a blind picture and got it.

[miamiangler1]

Originally Posted by pereopods

Came across one on our way out to do some drops off Port Everglades January of this year. Blackfin were popping all around it eating minnows. Stuck my camera underwater and snapped a blind picture and got it.

love those red X`S

[pereopods]

Hmm, tried to post the picture when prompted for the url but it didn't work. Sorry, I'm new on this forum and still grunting.
]whale shark pictures from diving & snorkeling photos on webshots[/url]

[Florida Cracker]

8 1/2 feet of water, bayside of Marathon last summer:







Only 1 cobia on it, short (released)

[Bill Fisher]

Wow man what a picture! That thing was huge!

[Boboe]

I had no idea they'd come into such SHALLOW water. 8.5'! Holy crappers!

I've seen a couple of them, always out in 1000'+ of water. One was "spy hopping," almost like whales do. He wasn't bringing himself way out of the water...just a foot or two, but he was hanging there vertically in the water. He stayed that way for about 5 minutes, then levelled off and went into steady cruising mode. My buddy and I jumped in and swam with him, and even got to grab his dorsal and take a 2 second ride.

The other time was in a similar area to the first one, and all we saw was its dorsal fin and caudal fin coming out of the water, with tunas carpetbombing all around. We hooked a few tunas, but can't remember how many we landed or their size.

Awesome underwater shot, btw!