As featured on the TODAY SHOW & Tom Brokaw's Nightly News

What a beautiful day Saturday the 21st of July was. Sun braking out, warm, and bright, over the Chatham bars, a dangerous area of shifting sand bars and narrow channels, which lead to the entrance to Pleasant Bay and Chatham's main harbor. Just a little pass 6:00 am and the weather forecast was for a light on shore breeze in the afternoon. Hardly any tide running and the Chatham Bar was as still as it has ever been. The Top Rod, a 20' Maritime Skiff powered by a 90 hp 4-stroke Honda was ready to take the 4 anglers from New Jersey out to fish the bountiful Chatham waters for Striped Bass with myself, Captain, Joe Fitzback.

I usually take 4 anglers or less but when the group arrived they brought along 2 girl friends, and with the great forecast predicted I allowed myself to be persuaded to take the 2 woman along. The wind was so light the boat created the only waves as we made our way to fish the plentiful waters of Chatham.

Joe Summa, of Hoboken asked me if I thought that we would see any sharks this day, and my answer was "maybe a few sand sharks. " He said that he wanted to torture a shark as just a few weeks ago a little boy had his arm bitten off by a Bull shark in Florida. I just smiled and told everyone to enjoy the sunrise, and to look forward to a great day of fishing. And boy was the fishing hot this day, we were catching striper after striper, and Joe caught his sand shark; it was one of the first fish that was caught. We must have pulled up 10 of these {dogfish}/ sharks and pictures were being taken of most all the fish including the dogfish. The two girls were keeping up with the guys. And so far they had caught the biggest fish. It always seems that on this boat female anglers have great luck.

Everyone was getting tired of all the fish we were catching so I suggested that we cruise over to south beach and see some seals that were visible on the beach. A few hundred seals were resting on the shore and there were 20 to 30 more swimming in the surf. There were Harbor and Grey seals mixed, a pretty sight for us all.

We caught a few more Stripers and dog fish near the seals, but they were smaller than the fish that were further off the beach in deeper water, so we went back to the area that we were in before and started to catch the larger Stripers again. The Bite wasn't slowing down, but our arms were and the time was getting to be close to 2pm.

We were about to call it a long satisfying day. With more than 80 Stripers landed, most of which were keepers. I told the crew that after a couple more casts we would be heading in. Two more stripers were hooked one off the bow the other off the stern. I was watching the bass in the stern when someone yelled out " What's that" I turned to look and all I could see was a blackish fin going into a large swirl where the striper off the bow was. It kind of looked like it may have been a pilot whale as I only had a very quick glance. But as the Striper was being played there was a hesitation and the line went slack." Hurry and pull that fish in" I said and what was brought to the side of the boat was just the head of a striper that would have been 20 lbs + like the majority of Bass we were catching.

My next thought was that it must have been a shark, but what kind I wasn't sure. I looked up and saw the wake of this large fish coming towards the boat. Following the head and trail of blood towards the boat. Then this large dark object swam under the boat. " Wow, that has to be a pretty big shark" and just as I finished saying that it came back around and circled bumping the side of the boat, rocking us a little and then as fast as it was there it was gone. I looked aft and saw that the other Bass was still out there swimming close to the surface. So my next thought was to get this bass to the boat and release it and get all our thoughts together. So I said, " Bring that Bass in real slow as not to create any surface noise."

That worked great, till it was brought to the side of the boat. I reached down to lip the fish and bring it aboard. Just as I grabbed the leader and started to pull the Striper out of the water I noticed a dark shape coming from under the boat. The shark grabbed the Bass and his teeth and jaws were trying to tear the Striper from my grasp. Violently shaking his head and body he was crashing into the side of the boat. Water was spraying all over the boat and us, his tail was slapping the stern and I was 14 feet from his tail, and inches from its massive mouth at the front of the boat. People were getting jostled around and I had a tug of war going on with this Shark. I looked down and all I could see was this giant black eye and a mouth full of teeth not 12 inches from my hand.

"POP!" I was knocked back into the center console; the shark had bit through the striper and was still spraying water drenching everyone. People were yelling and holding on so they wouldn't get knocked into the water. Again I had in my hand the head of another Striped Bass. I threw the head away from the boat as far as I could, hoping that the shark would follow it and leave the boat. I told everyone to get low in the boat and hold on.

Things quieted down and minutes later I searched the waters and there was no sight of the shark. We all started to look around for the shark but it seemed to have left. Or was he? Would he come back again and ram the boat, maybe knock some one overboard and have another meal? I spotted him again; he was swimming 20 yards off the bow of the boat in small circles cruising looking for another fish dinner. I looked towards shore and noticed that we were less than 3/4s of a mile from the shore and the swimming area off south beach where people walk over the sand spit from the stage harbor inlet. To enjoy the Atlantic sides cooler waters and waves, tourists, Seals, and A Great White Shark, what a mixture for an accident. I would later come to realize how dangerous this incident was. But at the moment I was acting out of instinct and doing a few things right.

" Well Joe, you got your Shark and it looked like he wanted you too, " I said. We all kind of chuckled but you could see we were all still pallid looking. We were pretty shaken and happy that we had a safe outcome. The Shark had his lunch, 2 Stripers; and we had the thrill of a lifetime.

The Maritime Skiff was floating proud with a few battle scars on the stern. We all agreed to head in. So I started up the Honda 90 and slowly headed for the marina. As we passed the harbor patrol I waved him over and told about the encounter with the Great White Shark. He was shocked and told me to call the Coast Guard and use a landline so as not to create any panic. When we docked at Ryders cove more pictures were taken, pats on the back, hand shakes and a promise we would do it again next year, less the Great White Shark.

The Coast Guard put out an alert for the Shark and I contacted the local paper so they would be able to warn the swimmers at South Beach also the boaters about the Great White. The story was picked up and sent out over the AP wire. I had everyone from Boston to Seattle's T.V. and Radio stations looking for a story. The tackle shop was a flurry of excitement for days. Television and camera crews from all over New England were walking in and interviewing anyone that would talk to them.

The next day I headed out to the same area and caught just as many fish with another party, but this time no hand to mouth with that Great White Shark, just dogfish and big stripers.

The shark was doing what he was programmed to do. Come and investigate a distressed fish and enjoy a fresh meal.

Later talking to Mr. Greg Skomal a state biologist from Woods Hole. He described some of the mannerisms of a Great White Shark, such as the bumping of the boat, to see if it was a meal. The circling of the boat and the way it came up to grab the fish at the side of the boat. Believe me when I now reach down to grab a Striper I look real close for a shark. And when and if we do meet again he can have any Striper that I have even my tuna fish sandwich.