As we pulled up to buy bait at “Fishin Franks Bait Shop” this past weekend we quickly realized we weren’t alone. A large crowd had gathered to see the results of what was obviously a local waters shark fishing contest. The dead “winners” lined up along the sidewalk packed on ice were all over five feet and their intense unblinking yellow eyes still seemingly held menace.
“Cor Mildred…bloody good job we didn’t go swimming here”
That’s what a British tourist exclaimed as he took his wife’s picture with a shark and I had to smile as this was our second encounter with both sharks and British tourists in a week.
The first one was a week previous where at a local beach I baited a jig head with a chunk of fish, made my cast and had a rod bend in an instant. The result was a healthy two foot black tip shark thrashing angrily out of the surf and on to the beach and witnessed by two very interested British tourists…..
“Just a little bugger” said the husband and he continued on with
“Won’t let little uns like that stop us enjoying a swim in this beautiful ocean will we darling?” ….his wife didn’t seem quite as confident.
And so as my little shark thrashed about at their lobster red sunburned feet I offered this observation.
“That little baby shark……has a Mother”
I then returned the little shark to the sea and added ……
“And a Father”
And the man’s missus definitely seemed less confident than he
And so she should….
