Thanks for visiting JawShark.com. My name is Matt and I created this website because I love sharks. When I was a boy my dad used to take me and my brother fishing out of Corpus Christi Texas in the Gulf of Mexico in our 21 foot open bass boat.

We would start out small using worm bait and steadily catch bigger fish using the heads of the smaller ones we caught. As the morning turned to afternoon we would end up chumming to see how many sharks we could get circling the boat. And we saw some nice ones. But my first time was different.

My first experience with a shark happened the first time we all went out together. This day was a particularly hot afternoon when the three of us were many miles out with no land in sight. I was using my cane pole (if you can believe that) and my brother had a fancy new rod and reel my dad had just bought him.

We stopped, made all our preparations and threw our lines in using cheese and bread bait. Soon after my brother started bitching from the other side of the boat that something was stealing his bait. He couldn't seem to catch his first fish. Every time he would drop in his bread bait it would get stolen by something with nothing getting caught. I didn't find this particularly alarming considering most of my casts were coming back with an empty hook as well. I just attributed it to the fact that I couldn't fish. I had been out before but this was one of my first times really far out in the Gulf and I was just happy to be there.

I leaned over and peered down into the water. Complete darkness. I looked around the boat and the ocean seemed blacker and our boat seemed smaller than it ever had. No land in sight. I made a comment about this to my dad and he said yeah, it's really deep here. At that moment I realized there was barely a wave as far as the eye could see. The ocean was almost perfectly still. All I could hear was a gentle slap of tiny waves against the fiberglass hull. For me it was scary.

That's when something took my bait. "Something just got my bait" I yelled. "See, I told you",  my brother retorted.

I rebaited my hook, dropped my line in and after a few minutes or so my tiny spool began to sing. Zz z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z z! The limited line I had on the old cane pole immediately ran to it's limit. It couldn't of been more than 200 feet. I cried out and held on to the pole for dear life. Realizing my panic my dad immediately grabbed the pole and tried to hold on. The pole went to to almost 90 degrees for a split second then failed with a resounding "snap" as it broke smartly in half.

Visibly irritated my dad just tossed what he still had in his hand in after it and it vanished forever. At that point we all just looked at each other and my brother burst out laughing. I could tell my dad was mad but he finally started smiling and stood there shaking his head. "Pretty strong for cheap fishing line" he muttered. Then we were all laughing and looking overboard in amazement. Nothing but darkness.

Wild with excitement my brother rebaited his line with a bigger wad of bread & cheese and tossed it in. It wasn't long before the big fish snagged it. The same exact thing happened to my brother that had happened to me. The fish began to fight. Except this time he was up against a brand new nylon rod and gobs of 40 lb test line.

My dad offered to help. But my brother being 12 and a big man declined. My brother fought the fish for almost an hour. He would run and then come back. Pass under the boat and it was all I could do to stay out of their way. It was exciting.

Finally the fish tired and my brother continued to pull. Then we saw it. My brother had hooked a four to five foot Hammerhead shark. We were amazed. With my brother's help my Dad hauled it into the boat with one mighty jerk.

This was a mistake. The shark was nowhere near total exhaustion. As I did everything I could to stay out of the way the shark began to wreak havoc and devastation on anything and everything he came into contact with inside the boat.

I have never seen an animal that small go so violently crazy as that shark did in that boat that day. He bit the tackle boxes, he bit the cooler, he bit my flip flops. He shredded a life jacket that had been tucked under the back seat. Hit bit the steering housing and thrashed back and forth almost getting my dad's ankle in the process. The whole time thrashing his head violently back and forth. My dad finally  managed to get him pinned down and asked us "are we going to eat him"? "No", I said. "Don't kill him". "No", my brother said. My dad reached down with a pair of wire cutters and clipped the hook and line out and away from his mouth .Then with one mighty toss the shark was back overboard.

I looked over as my dad shook his hand back and forth like he had just struck it with a hammer. His thumb was skinned raw. "Did he bite you", I asked. "No" he said, squeezing his thumb with his other hand. "The skin on one of his "eye stalks" did that", he said as he fumbled for his handkerchief.

"Wow" my brother said as I gazed at the devastation that had been our extra life jacket. I walked around and examined the teeth marks in my shoes and then my dad's beer cooler. It was at that moment I realized how powerful these animals were and fell in love with sharks right then and there. After this trip I developed a great respect and fascination for them. It was my first experience with a shark but it wouldn't be my last. Many times later we went out and after chumming I got to see quite a few big sharks. Tiger, Hammerhead, Bull and Mako, but never a Great White.

That same year Jaws came out in the theaters and it was all over. It was then I decided the Great White was the most amazing animal on the planet. And I was hooked so to speak.

I knew I wanted to do something (like go to Australia and meet Rodney Fox) but never seemed to have the time. The Internet came into existence and I found myself constantly cruising around the Internet in search of big shark information and Great White info & photos in particular. It wasn't that I couldn't find good information. It was that I couldn't find it all in one place. It always seemed like there was a snippet here and a photo there. With a sensational news article every now and again.

So in 2006 I decided to create this website. I began thinking about what I should call it and going over names in my head and all I could think about was "Jaws". Then suddenly the name just popped into my head. Jaws and Shark.

So if you have read this far chances are you are as interested and fascinated by this wonderful animal as much as I am.  They are beautiful, awesome, and terrifying. And most importantly, misunderstood. Hopefully by coming here you will learn something new about the most mysterious animal on the planet. I know I have learned a great deal in compiling this information. More than I ever imagined I would.

My next goal is to get out there and see one first hand.

Thanks for reading my story. I hope you enjoy this enthusiast's site.

Sincerely,

Matt