Canal brown shark

[zak-striper]

I was fishing Thu late night near a lighted pole when I saw a (light) silhouette of a shark passing by me. It was very close to the rocks. I put my headlamp on it and got a little better view of it. I could clearly see the longer top fin on the tail that browns have. That was the 1st time for me seeing a shark in the ditch.

 

Just wondering if anyone has caught a brown in the canal or knows someone who caught one. 

 

[Brock Landers]

Haven’t caught one but I saw one. Fishing east end mainland side, pole 20 or so. A bunch of squid in the area, brown shark came right up from the depths after a squid, grabbed it, and swam away. 

[bob_G]

I've only seen sharks a couple times in the canal over the years. Usually as zak described, came in under a light, and slowly left.

[albacized]

A number of years ago, I saw a small sand tiger shark at Bell Road. A kid first noticed it and I thought it was just a fairly healthy sized dogfish. So I snagged it (with a maria jig), thinking the kid would get a kick out of seeing it up close. I won't get into the rest of the story as it was pretty embarrassing once I realized what kind of shark it was (in terms of the intimidation its set of teeth sent my way) - except to mention the shark was safely sent back on it's way,  no harm, no foul...

[East Tide]

Long time ago while fishing eels at the point at Pips where the rocks meet the sand, waist deep, I had one swim up and brush my leg. It looked like a blue shark to me but it was the middle of the night and I had probably been hitting the fish whistle all night.

 

This Aug my brother and I were fishing eels a deep hole down by the Bourne bridge under a light at slack. He hooked and had a  huge fish on that took multiple runs and unltimately cut through just above the hook on a 50lb flouro leader after about 10 mins. We thought he lost a bass of a lifetime.

 

The next night at the exact same spot, exact same time in relation to slack I hooked what had to be the same fish. It felt like hooking one of the biggest fish I've caught at the Cribben on a full current. I didn't have it on for as long but it popped and I lost my mind thinking I had lost another monster bass only to find the eel that had it's eye stuck though the barrel swivel was absoloutely gashed, def not by a blue. Massive cuts from big teeth. My leader was cut cleanly in the exact same spot. I've caught a lot of  medium size (40-70 lb)  nurse sharks and black tips up to 4 feet down in the keys on far lighter tackle and this fish was way more powerfull and felt like a much bigger fish. I was using a Century 1267 which has way more balls than my 7' travel rods.

 

I don't know anything about shark behavior but it's crazy to me that the same fish would camp out and go after the same thing two nights in a row but I'd bet on that being the case. Have to imagine we hooked it in the corner of the mouth and it didn't hit the teeth until it changed direction or shook it's head.

[slacktide]

On 9/16/2023 at 9:34 PM, bob_G said:

I've only seen sharks a couple times in the canal over the years. Usually as zak described, came in under a light, and slowly left.

I have seen the same thing in the fall and also in the evening. 

[Pescador710]

I thought I saw one once… but it was just that the guy a pole or two up current couldn’t hold it any more

[Ditch Jigger]

On 9/17/2023 at 4:34 AM, bob_G said:

I've only seen sharks a couple times in the canal over the years. Usually as zak described, came in under a light, and slowly left.

 Yup, I saw a brown cruise by under the light at that spot where we used to fish together. About 5-6' long. I could have touched it with my rod tip. But it was really cool to see.

Many years ago, I saw a large triangular fin cutting the water like a knife, out in the middle, in the west end. I was wading behind Merle Cassidy's house at the time. I kind of backed out of the water really fast when I saw that fin go under.  More likely a basking shark rather than a great white, but I wasn't taking that chance.  

[clambellies]

I've been spooled twice in the canal.  One time jigging and one time bait fishing a chunk of mackerel.  I'm sure both times it was a brown shark.  No head shaking, just a powerful run with the current, a few times speeding up faster than the current.  Absolutely no stopping them with my equipment.

[Ditch Jigger]

23 hours ago, clambellies said:

I've been spooled twice in the canal.  One time jigging and one time bait fishing a chunk of mackerel.  I'm sure both times it was a brown shark.  No head shaking, just a powerful run with the current, a few times speeding up faster than the current.  Absolutely no stopping them with my equipment.

 Maybe tuna? 

[jigmaster5]

I've seen sharks in the canal...East End...fall...under the lights.  They were around for a couple nights & then I've never seen them again.  This was probably 10-15 yrs ago.

 

They were too big to be dogfish....and there were a couple of them.

[Bollesy]

I caught what I believe to be a Brown shark about 20 years ago. P45 under the light on chunk Mackeral, all I knew at the time. Thought it was a striper of a lifetime, but ended being what I believe was a brown. I don’t fish sharks but my estimate was 50 - 60 lbs.

[BrianBM]

And you weren't bitten off? Good for you.

[Intrepid95]

Never encountered any large sharks in the Canal personally myself, but maybe somewhat related, I did one time see a huge stingray cruising by on an east tide at the Freezer Rd bulkhead in Sandwich. This would have been in the late-90s, out chunking with a friend of mine. Suddenly we both see this monstrous thing come by, swimming just below the surface maybe 30 or 40 yards out. Just close enough to be visible under the lights. Buddy jumps up and grabs his other rod and takes a cast at it to try and snag it. Missed by a good 10 feet lol, but as soon as his plug hit the water this thing spooked, erupted in a splash of water and dove straight down and disappeared.

 

For years I had no idea what it could have been. Didn't have internet at the time and had no idea that stingrays could even venture this far north. The closest thing I could think of was a torpedo ray, but it definitely wasn't that. It was much larger than any I'd ever seen and didn't have a dorsal fin. In retrospect now I'm pretty sure it was a roughtail stingray. In fact, this picture from wikipedia is basically exactly how I remember it looking. Maybe even a little bit bigger!

 

[Rmarsh]

A little west of the canal last year

 

 

 

Edited Thursday at 09:33 AM by Rmarsh