How NOT to Fish for Shark 
2003 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance
Only an honorable mention, but just give them time!
Boat's sinking turns fishermen into bait
By Andrew Marra, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
onday, July 15, 2002
VERO BEACH -- When their boat capsized 17 miles offshore, four fishing buddies suddenly found themselves floating in a bloody stew of their own design -- assorted fish innards they had dumped in the water in hopes of luring sharks to their lines.
On board John McCaffery's 19-foot boat Saturday morning was a bona fide bait buffet -- 5 pounds of sardines, 8 pounds of squid, a heap of frozen shrimp, and three 5-pound frozen blocks of fish blood and guts.
Suddenly they were swimming in it.
"We were floating in the chum line," James Kennedy recalled Sunday. "That put us in the middle of a smorgasbord. You could see shadows moving around underwater. I made myself not think about it." Their only lifeline: a cell phone stuffed in a plastic bag for safekeeping. Their life jackets were lost when the boat capsized. The signal flares and radio were deep-sixed, too.
By all accounts, Saturday had promised to be a successful day of fishing for McCaffery and his crew when they anchored about 17 miles northeast of the Fort Pierce Inlet. Then the Dolphin boat began taking on more water than it could handle. A wave flipped it, sending it under in mere seconds.
Kennedy, Randy Beal and Dennis Anderson were thrown overboard around 11 a.m. McCaffery, who was trying to start the engine, hit his head and was forced down with the sinking boat. He had to untangle his shirt from a lever and fight back to the surface.
The four men, all in their 30s and 40s, were treading water with no land in sight. They were left clinging to floating odds and ends.
Raw fish parts and chunks of frozen chum floated all around them --along with the carcasses of two sharks they had caught, pulled on board and slit under the neck to let them bleed. Another four sharks had already taken the bait that morning but had been let go.
Kennedy said they had caught two sharks in the area less than an hour before. And he had been fishing enough times in the area to know it wasn't likely those were the only two sharks cruising around.
cCaffery buried his hands in a soggy backpack, in hopes of keeping the glint of two gold rings from attracting the sort of fish you prefer to see through glass.
cCaffery was worried about how long it would be before anyone even noticed they were gone. They are die-hard fishermen, sometimes at sea for more than a day at a time. It would be a while before their wives and children missed them.
The way McCaffery figures it, the only thing that saved them was the phone. Anderson had brought it along, stashing it in a cooler with his lunch, wrapped in its own Ziploc bag.
Through good fortune, the cooler had not sunk; it was floating nearby. Anderson pulled out the phone.
It still worked.
Treading water all the while, he dialed 911. The Indian River County dispatcher had trouble hearing him -- Anderson had to hold the phone above his head to avoid the waves.
cCaffery and Kennedy estimated the phone call lasted at least 30 minutes.
Two rescue boats first passed within 500 feet of them, but never saw their bobbing heads. Finally a Coast Guard helicopter from Miami spotted them around 12:30 p.m. and directed a Coast Guard boat to fish them out.
The men were unhurt -- except for a gash above McCaffery's eye and sore muscles all around.
They all declined medical treatment after being dropped off at the Fort Pierce Inlet. Kennedy went home to take a shower and call his daughter.
A bit later Saturday night, the four of them decided to gather at McCaffery's Vero Beach home to reflect on the misadventure. Kennedy arrived at the house, stepped into the back yard and gasped.
cCaffery and Beal were in the swimming pool -- up to their necks in water.
Submitted on 07/18/2002
Submitted by:
Anonymous
Reference:
Palm Beach Post, 7/15/2002
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