This great white was curious about this kayak.
One of the biggest challenges in saltwater angling is to do so from a kayak. You're at the mercy of the open ocean with just a few inches of molded plastic between yourself and the creatures lurking beneath the waves. If the fish is big enough, it can easily tow your watercraft around like a bluegill pulling a bobber on a farm pond.
At least, that's how we suspect the angler in this insane kayak fishing video felt at the time it was taken. It shows YouTuber Matt Smith fishing off New South Wales, Australia when a beast from the deep makes a sudden appearance.
It's a great white shark. A big one. It is almost longer than his kayak and it circles the small watercraft a few times before disappearing back into the depths. The entire scene captured by a drone hovering overhead.
There's another version of this video we didn't share because he drops a huge string of expletives as the shark circles around and checks out his drift bag. We don't blame him though. He was much closer to one of the ocean's greatest predators than many people would willingly put themselves into. As intimidating as this looked from the air, we imagine it was terrifying from the kayak.
He ends up cutting his drift sock free as the shark circles around to the back of the kayak. Again, we can't blame him. Even a curiosity bite on that could pull the tail end of the kayak underwater or flip him.
Thankfully, curiosity seems to be the only reason this shark surfaced to check out the angler. It may have initially been drawn in by his struggling baitfish on the hook and then had to have a closer look at the kayak. After all, it is an unnatural object the fish isn't going to see every day. The way it vanishes into the depths only a few feet down is spooky. This is why you never swim in murky ocean water!
Fortunately, neither shark nor human were hurt in this encounter and the angler will have a great story to tell for years to come. You're a braver man than us Matt, an incident like this would probably spook us off the water for a good long while!
For more outdoor content from Travis Smola, be sure to follow him on Twitter and check out his Geocaching and Outdoors with Travis YouTube channels.
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