BACK TO TIPS | BACK TO ARCHIVE |  CONSERVATION NEWS

REAL FISH ATTACKS
Many deep-sea fishermen are unaware of what lurks under the surface until a fairly large predator fish eats their hooked fish!
by Terry Lacoss

It was a fairly long run aboard Heatwell's 23-foot kingfish boat, "Lightly Toasted" to Georgia's Gray's reef. The fishing party included Frank Heatwell and sons, Tyler, Lee and Jeremy Biggers. The Southern Kingfish Association Team was competing in the 24th Annual Bell South Greater Jacksonville Kingfish Tournament and had checked out from the St. Mary's inlet earlier that morning.

"We knew that some really big kings had been caught at Gray's Reef during the past few days and were betting our odds in catching a winner from these famous kingfish waters," said Frank Heatwole.

The Yulee, Florida fishing team hadn't been fishing long when a gigantic kingfish struck one of the "Flat-Line" live baits.

"Lee took the rod and reel and played the fish, which made two reel screaming runs before the massive kingfish began to give way to the constant rod pressure," remembered Heatwole. "We were just preparing to gaff what we thought was a 50 pound kingfish, when a twelve-foot tiger shark swam up from the deep depths below our kingfish boat and opened up its massive mouth barred with rows of razor sharp teeth and bit the king right in two!"

"Later we weighed the remaining half of the kingfish, which weighed just over 30 pounds!"

Ironically the largest kingfish weighed in during the SKA event was weighed in by St. Augustine's Paul Dozier and weighed just over 46 pounds. Lee Heatwole's kingfish would have easily taken big fish honors if it was weighed in one piece! Other fishermen, fishing in the same SKA event, reported being harassed by a large tiger shark during the tournament. In fact king mackerel fishermen have reported sighting the tiger shark at Gray's reef since the water began to warm up during late April.

A variety of predator fish often hide in concealment at deep offshore fish havens, targeting weak fish for an easy meal. For the unfortunate angler, these same predators often attack hooked fish, cutting them up into pieces when becoming weak from a lengthy battle.

Many frequent shark attacks come from hammerhead and tiger sharks. Barracuda are well known for cutting a winning size kingfish up into pieces, just before the kingfish team secures their catch with the boat's gaff. Porpoise also feed on kingfish in the warm waters of south Florida and are also feared by tournament king mackerel fishermen as well.

One of the more famous sport fishing waters for shark attacks includes the deep waters of Florida's Boca Grande Pass. Here tarpon fishermen drift through the pass, fishing for trophy size tarpon with crabs, or plastic tail, led head jigs. Once a tarpon is hooked, the sport fishing boat guides the hooked tarpon out and away from the rest of the tarpon boats, where the angler fights the tarpon without having his hooked trophy tangle in nearby fishing lines or running gear from other boats. Unfortunately, when the hooked tarpon becomes tired and is finally too tired to swim away from the angler, one of many nearby hammerhead sharks are likely to come in and cut the weak tarpon in two with its mouth full of razor sharp teeth.

To avoid having a shark attack their hooked tarpon, many Boca Grande tarpon fishermen will simply cut their tarpon free, allowing the tarpon to escape certain death from the nearby shark. Another tactic that is often employed by tournament tarpon fishermen, involves having a nearby tarpon boat reel in their fishing lines and run their tarpon boat in between the hammerhead shark and the hooked tarpon! This competitive fishing tactic often results in scaring away the hungry shark. With this in mind, Boca Grande tarpon fishermen are constantly on the lookout for large shanks in the pass that often pose a threat in eating their hooked tarpon. I also talked with a local shark fisherman who competes in an annual Boca Grande shark tournament. The shark fisherman explained that it normally takes an 800 - 900 pound tiger shark to win the event. All of the tiger sharks are often chummed up at night while fishing a few miles offshore of the Boca Grande Pass.

Wade fishing is also very popular for snook, sea trout and redfish in the fertile waters of Charlotte Harbor as well. A few summers ago, a local wade fisherman was attacked and eaten by a 10-foot bull shark. Several local fishermen believe that the wade fisherman was wading when a fairly large school of mullet moved into the same shallows that he was fishing in. The theory here was that the large bull shark had all good intentions on filling its stomach with large roe mullet when the unfortunate wade fisherman became an even easier meal!

King mackerel fishermen are often harassed by porpoises while fishing for winter kingfish in the deep blue waters of the Florida Keys. During a past winter fishing trip to the Florida Keys our fishing party was deep jigging for kings from the bow of our tournament kingfish boat. At the same time, we were slow trolling large blue runners off the transom of the boat. During those early morning hours kingfish were readily hitting a large bucktail jig cast a good distance straight off the bow and allowed to sink deep. Unfortunately for the three kings that we did hookup deep jigging, they were all attacked by nearby porpoise before we could land them. Other SKA teams were also complaining about these same porpoise attacks on their hooked kingfish.

Ironically, these are the only fishing waters that we have ever experienced porpoise attacks!

Feared by many king mackerel fishermen, barracuda readily attack king mackerel and chomp them into small pieces to the horror of nearby fishermen. I can't tell you how many times a fairly large kingfish was hooked up on our "Amelia Angler" tournament boat, only to have a large "cuda" chase it down and cut it into pieces. Barracuda attacks often occur during the first run of a hooked king mackerel, which ultimately ends in a pool of blood on the surface of the ocean and the angler experiencing a dead weight on the end of his fishing line. The frustrated king mackerel angler begins to reel in the remains of his kingfish, as nearby barracuda move in to eat the remains of the kingfish, right up to the king's gill plates!

Barracuda attacks can come right at the side of the boat when the hooked kingfish becomes weary of the fight and is ready to be landed. Here nearby barracuda will swim up from the depths and cut the hooked kingfish right into two halves then begin to feed on the remaining flesh. Other nearby barracuda will often join in on the easy meal.

Avoiding a barracuda attack on your hooked king mackerel can oftentimes be very difficult, considering the attack is usually so fast from nearby barracuda swimming up from nearby water depths in a blink of an eye. However if you are lucky enough to see the barracuda first, before they eat your hooked kingfish, the best fishing tactic is to put your kingfish reel into free spool and allow your kingfish to swim away from the hungry cuda.

Once you feel that your kingfish has reached safe waters, re-engage your kingfish reel and reel in your catch!

Finally, one of the safest places to catch king mackerel is areas where the water is slightly discolored. Here predator game fish have a difficult time locating hooked or weak game fish. On the other hand, if you are king fishing in clear water, be aware of nearby sharks, barracuda and porpoises-they will eat your catch!

Southern Kingfish Association tournament rules disallow weighing in any king mackerel that has been bitten and impaired from swimming or fighting in a normal way.