I was out fishing on the kayak this morn and had paddled to the county pier to meet up with my wife and son. when I got there I decided to beach the yak and fish off the pier while they played on the beach.
No sooner did I get set up on the pier than a lady walked by me and said "Is that a whale?" I looked and about 300 yds off the pier was a huge dorsal and tail sticking out of the water. I thought it was a whale shark at first so I grabbed my rods and tackle box and hauled ass back to my yak.
Thankfully I had my wetsuit, mask and fins in my car so I grabbed those and put the wetsuit on as quick as I could.
I saw a parasail boat and a couple of jet skis heading towards it and figured they would spook him off before I could get there, but by the time I got back out everybody on the pier had seen it and were pointing me to it.
When I caught up with it I saw it wasn't a whale shark but a huge basking shark Long story short I was able to paddle around him for like a half an hour. I even managed to get the yak anchored and swam with him for about 10 min touching it and even grabbing his tail for a minute.
This was one of the coolest experiences I have ever had. Several of the locals on the pier got pics and I will post them when I get 'em
Imagine paddleing up on that thing at night. It would scare me to death. I would have a hard time convincing myself that it was not going to grow some teeth as soon as my but got in the water with it. No ling with it? Cool real cool.
Land Based World Record #5 short fin Mako 700lbs
Team
Land Based World Record #8 Tiger shark 928lbs
True
Land Based World Record #9 Tiger shark 949lbs
Blue
SFSC Panhandle Events Coordinator
WOW! Sounds like the chance of a lifetime! 
And here's the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6POpa3r_ ... r_embedded
Thats the first one I've ever seen one that close to shore.
Usually we get the whale sharks in close but that basking
shark is certainly unique for this area.......
That's huge, imagine all the times people have hooked monsters that dump reels, what if one of those times it was a snagged baskign shark 
but how long was your yak? that thing was twice the size of it right?
Just an average fisherman.
my yak is 14 ft. There was a big school of these little black plankton looking creatures swimming around that it was eating I'm guessing that it was following those. From what I understand they are usually cold water fish and are pretty common along the northern atlantic coast but not in water above 60 degrees. They have been spotted in warm water before but with our water temps climbing above 66 degrees this was a really rare occurance.
That thing is huge !
That is incredible .First time i've ever heard of a Florida land based fishermen seeing or getting close to a basking shark.The pictures and video are awesome.My hopes are that these and other at risk sharks species are making a recovery and that in the future our children and their children will be able to see these same magnificent sharks.
GREAT WORK-THANKS JOSH!!
SOUTH FLORIDA SHARK CLUB -President SFSC-Founding Member est 1983 SFSC-Website Administrator BIG HAMMER SHARK TOURNAMENT -Founder Rene Memorial Sharkathon -Founder NMFS Shark Tagger
That looks like keysharkers little picture on his posts.
Land Based World Record #5 short fin Mako 700lbs
Team
Land Based World Record #8 Tiger shark 928lbs
True
Land Based World Record #9 Tiger shark 949lbs
Blue
SFSC Panhandle Events Coordinator
wow that is amazing what id give to swim with one of those beast in the wild. so my question is does a basking shark count for the SFSC tournament if caught? lol
CBS News called me this morning and are going to fly me to New York to appear on their live morning show tomorrow. Talk about an awsome platform to discuss shark conservation from. I hope I can use this publicity to bring awareness about land based shark fisherman and their conservation efforts to the national stage. Wish me luck, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to do something great for our sport!
DUDE THAT IS AMAZING!!PROPS TO YOU AND GODSPEED ON YOUR TRIP.
SOUTH FLORIDA SHARK CLUB -President SFSC-Founding Member est 1983 SFSC-Website Administrator BIG HAMMER SHARK TOURNAMENT -Founder Rene Memorial Sharkathon -Founder NMFS Shark Tagger
Wonderful Josh! Kudos to you!
some one has to record it and post it up here for us all to see it
