Posted by Joe Guilbeau on September 19, 2002 at 18:44:54:
In Reply to: this might sound crazy, but.... posted by cax on September 18, 2002 at 19:55:11:
: couldn't u fire a 22 round into a sharks head? from a few feet away of course. the water is out of the city's jurisdiction, no?
It was Spring of 1967, we were about 45 miles south of Port O'Connor when the 60 Lb. test started screaming. I was with my dad in an 18 foot Powercat with a Merc O/B. We fought that fish for three hours, finally it came up to the horizon, and yes it was a shark. A 15 Foot long Lemon Shark, we had the billy club along, broke it. We had the 357 Magnum along with 158 grain soft point lead bullets. Six shots later, there was very little response from the shark, not sure if the dang thing noticed it much at all. We carved out two huge giant steaks that filled the ice chest. We cut the leader, and the damn thing swam off. That was a different era, sounds pretty gruesome these days, i guess it was pretty gruesome even back then. So I vote with the others, don't bring the handguns along, they won't do you that much good. And yeah, I know that it is common knowledge that Lemon sharks only get to 10 feet or so, well this guy never got that message. How do I know that the shark was about 15 feet long, because it went the length of the Powercat, almost, within about 3 feet. Big ole head, maybe it was shot placement, I dunno. I do know that the shark was great table fare. We did not know what kind of shark that it was, until we got back to the dock, and it was identified by some "old salts".
Probably shouldn't tell this story, will catch hell most likely, but there you go. An eyewitness account of mixing ballistics and fishes. by the way, I understand now that the Lemon Shark is No. 10 or 12 on the most dangerous list, in terms of attacking humans. That might mitigate the circumstances somewhat on some folks eyes, I know that thinking back on that incident, I feel remorse.