A frightening encounter with a freshwater Bull Shark

This week I recall one of my most frightening encounters with a shark in a place I least expected it. Bull Sharks are unique in that they can tolerate the saltiest of open ocean water and the purest of fresh water well upstream of where most people think big sharks roam.

There are only very few species of Australian sharks that can tolerate freshwater, for example the small spear tooth shark, but many many species of sharks that can handle sea and brackish water (even great white sharks will travel into brackish water in rare instances), but it is the Bull Sharks Ability to travel well upstream into fresh water that sees it turn up in the most unlikely of places; places where you fish for bass, sartoga, and golden perch without sharks even crossing your mind!

Bull Sharks inhabit tropical and sub-tropical waters in the top two thirds of Australia.  They have earned the scary statistic of making the most attacks on humans of any shark species.  But while they can be aggressive in rare instances, their bad reputation has been formed because they spend most of their time in shallow estuaries, bays and rivers where we humans also like to swim.

Bull sharks will mistake a splashing swimmer for a struggling bait fish, especially in murky water or low light and will charge in and bite first then ask questions later.  And in most attacks this is exactly what happens; very rarely does a bull shark return to eat a human, but the fact that they hit at speed and have a serious set of teeth means a nasty wound and in some cases death from blood loss.

This being said the chances of getting bitten by a bull shark are very slim, you are more likely to get hit by lightning.  To lessen the odds of attack further don’t swim in known bull shark haunts, especially in murky water, don’t swim at dawn, dusk or night, and don’t swim around bait fish schools!

In researching this species I visited places like Miami Lakes in the Gold Coast where there was a fatality.  I also looked at the canals further downstream, the broadwater, the Brisbane River right in the heart of the City, and the freshwater reaches of the Brisbane River.  My hunt then took me to land locked brackish lakes where Bull Sharks have been trapped for 20 years and have grown to 3 meters long!

In the above mentioned places I found the Shark fishing to be everything from easy to hard, and I helped scientists tag some sharks along the way. The moment I will remember most though was further south when I walked along the banks of a bass river trying to confirm rumors of bull sharks in the freshwater well upstream of the tidal influences of the sea. 

There I was, country birds singing, tall grass and inland trees all around.  I was beginning to think what a lovely place, when out the corner of my eye I spotted a BIG shark fin in the water.  Something made me look between a gap in two trees at the precise moment at which the sharks dorsal fin appeared.  It then silently slipped back under the surface not to be seen for another three days.  The shark was a genuine 3 meter beast and just thinking about it sends shivers up my spine.

This is the sort of place where you would normally feel 100% safe going for a swim, or wading across the river waist deep while having a few casts with a fly rod.  It was one of my most scariest moments in 40 years of Fishing around this Country.

I saw the big girl once more, and managed to tag one half her size as pictured here abouts.

See you on the water.
Rob Paxevanos