Shark jumps in boat while swording

[fastgas]

In todays keynoter their is an article about some folks vacationing down
here and swording off marathon. One of their jugs moves and they start
reeling. see a fish jumping out in the darkness. Ok we're on. Next thing
they know a 180lb mako jumps over the motors and on top of
one of the guys running the boat. He gets up on the gunnels and the
shark starts thrashing . they stick it with a gaff and hold on till it
dies. Don't think its april fools as there are pics. Oh well guess we have to
be careful. worst i've had is a man eating tinker jump in on me. Check it
out www.keynoter.com

[Mike]

I could believe that..

Naples anglers have vacation to remember

It was a nice night Tuesday - a perfect night for swordfishing.

However, for Erik Madison and his girlfriend Gayel Ambrose of Naples, and Erik's brother Jay Madison and his son Jay Madison III of Maine, the swords were just not biting.

But in the dark ocean waters 33 miles off the Middle Keys, the vacationing family was about to land the catch of a lifetime - or, more correctly, the catch was about to land on them.


"We saw one of our [line] balloons move and a fish jump way out in the darkness," Erik Madison said. "I started taking the line up, and all of a sudden it rocketed out of the water."

"It" was a 6-foot, 180-pound mako shark - a species known for its aggression - that launched nearly 6 feet out of the water, over the rear engines and into Madison's 26-foot center-console boat.

"He jumped right on top of me and knocked me to the ground," Madison said. "His head and mouth was basically laying right on my belly."




Amid the startled yells of Madison's passengers, he quickly crawled out from under the shark, which lay still in the left side of the boat. But he didn't lie still for long.

"He didn't move at first - he was probably stunned, as well," Madison said. "But after a few seconds he started moving and tearing up the boat."

The shark took a few chunks out of the cabin and ripped a large gash in the cushion lining the inside cabin.




The family hardly had the resources to move the thrashing shark back into the water and was in danger if they couldn't find a way to control the rows of razor-sharp teeth.

So they used a gaff to move the shark into the front of the boat, where they simply waited for it to die.

Twenty minutes later, and a chewed and bent-up gaff later, the mako met its maker.




"If we would've caught him the normal way, we could've released him," Madison said. "But we weren't prepared for this."

Ambrose, shaken by what had just taken place, voiced a desire to call it a night and head back in. But the boys had other plans.

"The shark landed on me, and I still felt like fishing," Madison said. "So we stayed and continued trying for swordfish. We didn't catch anything."

A few hours later, the family returned home with their prize and a few great pictures snapped by Jay Sr.

In the morning, the rest of the family gathered around the boat for pictures and to discuss what they were going to do with the shark.

"We might take jaws for Jay [Jr.] and go weigh it at a marina," Madison said at the dock of his Key Colony Beach vacation home. "I heard they are good eating, but it might be too late for that."

Later that day, Madison, still a little sore from where the shark hit him on his shoulder and back, took the shark out to deep water, cut it up and sank it.

Although they couldn't keep or eat their largest catch in two years, the Madison family did take home amazing memories of a flying Keys shark.

"It was simply amazing," Madison said. "He may have been a little small for that species, but I'll tell you what, he looked awful big flying through the air at us."

[Kevin K]

I wish an 8 foot sword would jump in my boat.

www.swordfishingadventures.com

[Keith Poe]

Jumping makos at night are pretty common.
I've seen it over 1000 times. What's actually taking place is a super fast erratic swimmer running out of water. Landing in the boat is well simply like playing the lottery with your baits being the lure lol.
You just never know what can happen. Last season off the west end of Catalina alone at 1:00 AM I was swordfishing when meet by a 700 plus class titian missal mako that started things off by coming in and slurping down a giant squid filet oh so un lady like turning and twirling through the air slamming right in to my transom as I met her there to try and pick the rod up. As I was in mid air like some sort of cartoon heading for the flybridge I see her above the antennas off the port bow twisting flashing her big white belly as she revolved past the 3000 watts of light over and over again. At this point the closest thing I saw was the radio.
I putting in a call with my location asking for extraction if I was not heard from in 15 minutes. Yeah that's plenty of time to die LOL
I finally got the rod out of the holder when it was about spent.
After clearing the other sword rigs I finally got the rod over the windshield and throttled on and off at WOT retrieving some line trying to slow her down. Best way to do a big mako in is let her run as fast as she wants with little resistance especially on light tackle. The last sword I had hooked in this area was in the 500 lb. class so I naturally had the 80 out for the swords with only a 30 W out for the mako just off the transom with 60 lb. wire and a small circle hook. Long story short I got caught in the flyer hanging over the light pole and ripped my knuckle to the bone causing a pretty red stream with every lift of the rod decorating the boat from bow to stern. As the hours wore on I was reduced to making a decision of passing bleeding out then I had her at leader and made a decision to double wrap and bust out of the fight much the same as a tap out in a match. You see I know when I'm beat and she won fair and square.
She was just coming in to eye me up and down to what I looked like later after she was done doing to me what she was about to do on the trip to hell I saw coming in her fiery eyes. What a beautiful woman I've always loved the Amazonian.
Keith Poe
PO Box 2056
Redondo Beach, CA 90277
310-562-6205
www.sharktagger.com
sharktgr@verizon.net

[sloth]

This is a true story, Erik Madison is a local vet here in town w/ no reason to exagerate. also this is the exact story I heard for my brother that works for him. I'm not sure Erik would have released the mako if caught on rod and reel however.

[RiskTaker]

This story reminds me of a catchy phrase. You wouldn't know a diamond if you held it in your hand, from a classic Steely Dan song.

It almost seems fitting -- After reading the story of this Mako landing in the Keynoter.com website. It turns out that the fish was diced up and thrown back into the water the following day. That family event was certainly a great fish story but what a shame and a waist of a fantastic fish!

I have not yet had fresh caught Mako but I understand that it is an excellent eating fish. So the next time someone lands a Mako and decides to kill it, please enjoy what you have caught. 180 lbs. of fresh fish sounds pretty yummy to me.

I would suggest you slash the tail nearly off as soon as practical to let it bleed and also gut it right away. By doing this you will also be letting the urea out which has been noted to foul the taste of shark. (From some of the reading, I understand that sharks have high urea content in the blood.

Bon Appetit, RT

[sloth]

I agree, I seems like a waste of some great meat, I wonder if he knew what he had? That part of the story I don't belive.

good luck