I had a pretty scary close encounter yesterday in the water

[dc426]

My wife is always on my butt about being careful while I'm in the water hunting. With all the sharks in the news lately I'm sure it's on everyone's mind. It was about 7am yesterday morning I was a little over waist deep inside the sand bar. It was just a little choppy because of the sand bar, but for the most part conditions were pretty good. I constantly scan all around me when I'm out there, at this point I was the only one in the water with just a few people walking the shore line. So I'm heading south along the shoreline about 30 feet off shore. I turn my head to the right and within an arms reach is a huge dark mass about the size of my car, at that very same moment that I saw it (I almost reached out and clubbed it!) it stuck it's snout up and exhaled. It scared the live sh*t out of me! I see manatees all the time and even get pretty close to them but this one scared the bejesus out of me. I'll bet it was 12 feet long and about 3-4 feet away just cruising along without a care in the world. Me on the other hand was the only guy in the water cussing and swearing at the water at 7am.
HH/DC

 

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[PullTabPete]

Nothing like getting the adrenaline flowing early in the morning, makes me glad I'm in freshwater.

Good Luck and HH

Pete

 

[Tom Bigbee]

Not something I would want to see beside me... but of all the attacks that I hear about I don't ever remember hearing of a shark attacking a treasure hunter... You would think they would be drawn to the sound of a metal detector since I've heard they are very curious animals. Glad it wasn't a Great White!

 

[BeachComber7]

Bet that woke you up!

 

[boogeyman]

You need to follow the first rule of scuba diving, ALWAYS take a buddy. Why you ask? Why do we use the buddy system? In the case of a close shark encounter, the first thing you do is stab the buddy & swim like h-ll!!!!!!!!!!!!

The nice thing about being in the water is noone notices that you just wet yourself.

 

[lorraine]

That is frightening, dc426; I get scared when I see a live crab in my scoop !

Lorraine

 

[lookindown]

You almost became the first documented victim of a manatee attack...glad you got away. Weve seen a lot of manatees this Summer on the West Coast.I get a little jumpy sometimes when Im in the water by myself.

 

[Les West Central Fl]

I had a 6 to 7 foot manatee come up to me a few weeks ago and put his or her snout on my coil. Not being satisfied it tried to use it's paw to lift my coil. I was afraid it was going to bite the coil so I moved it away . The manatee lifted the snout out of the water and looked at me like I took it's lunch then left.

 

[Terry Soloman]

I think I wet my pants a little just READING that!

 

[austin]

C'mon guys. I don't think manatees can do much to you. The poor thing was curious, obviously was not afraid of humans and what a terrific encounter. Here on the Texas coast we have a lot of sharks(bull, hammerheads and a couple more). I have had them cruise by me and do nothing. In my entire life(I'm 64) there has only been one death here I think. A guy was fishing and tying his catch around his waist on his stringer. The shark went for the fish, hit his leg instead and he bled to death on the beach. This was about 1960 or so at South Padre. We were 200 yards down the beach. For some reason they love to chase you guys. I guess Floridians taste better than Texans...

 

[search and recovery]

I know it is scary anytime something slips up on you unexpectedly. If you worry about sharks, then make sure you have a couple of rare earth magnets in your scoop. Recent studies show that sharks navigate by the earths magnetic field and they do not like the distrbance of magnets and will clear out quickly when they get near the magnets. Do not know how much this actually works, but I have them in mine and it doesn't hurt.

 

[biggmike]

I'm glad you said it was only a Manatee. We run into them a lot. Me and davidfl were hunting close to each other when he said "something just bumped me". I said "do you mean you bumped something" and he said no it just bumped me again then we watched as about a 10 footer circled us then followed us for about 100 yards down the beach. They are harmless but you are right.... They scare the pizz out of you when they sneak up on you like that.

 

[AC1955]

Would have scared the living sh** out of me. I don't care if it was a manatee or what....anything bigger than a minnow scares me. I prefer my sea creatures battered and deep fried, thank you. Human sushi, anyone?

Glad you were not hurt and that your encounter was with a manatee and nothing more dangerous.

 

[Misplaced]

It will wake you up!! Better than a cup of coffee......

 

[detectahead]

No what you mean, lol. I was swimming on the east coast in W.P.Beach area when I saw about 75 yrds to the north of me people screaming and clearing out of the water as fast as they could go. I was just about chest deep when I saw 4 large shadows heading my way. I froze and stood perfectly still! Two went one side and two on backside. They went by me so close that there hides scraped along my legs! That's when I noticed they were harmless manatee's. But for a few seconds I was scared sh--less to!

 

[Jeff Harris]

Imagine if it had kissed you? Try explaining why your face smells fishy to the wife.

 

[leprechaun]

Any thing that big in the water is scary until you figure out what it is, I was fishing at marco Island one time in waist deep water and was swarmed by a half dozen manatees And they were3 feet wide
by two and a half feet long,I almost had the big one until I realized what they were,I can relate and my wife is always telling me to stay on shore and fish.