shark encounter

[Ballistic]

We went out on Saturday for the Clearwater Classic Tournement.( great time) We were in 70' out of Tarpon where we had done well with AJ's in the past. 4 of us hit the water,the plan is for first 2 to desend and get their fish and head up as the next 2 move in and get theirs. Great, we drop into a school of about 60 fish in the 30-40 pound class. My two sons head down while we hang in the column (spotting). They each place a perfect shot. Myself and Kelly(dude) move in for our shot. I get my shot off and the fish tears off. Reload and shoot again,fish spins my tip off. My son Nick has secured his fish and is taking enjoyment in watching the old man trying to get his shit together. He hands me his tip,gives me the shark signal and heads out. No big deal, we have seen sharks here before. I see a 7' bull shark in the distance just kinda minding his own business. Time to take a last shot and take the fish to the surface. I quickly get a good shot and start up. Kelly has been waiting in the column and we ascend together. I look down and have 2 bull sharks in tow. Just kinda slowly following, no signs of aggression. I am draging my fish up and decided to bring him in to me thinking this should end the curiousity of the sharks. Slip on powerhead now mounted and knife out in hand. Thankful I have a kill spike for powerhead as spear is still in AJ tucked in headlock I have on fish, who is still doing everything he can do to get out of it. kelly and I get a little closer and and form our defensive posture as we had always planned. We get to the surface and Kelly signals the boat that we could use some assistance. I look down and we now have 4 bull sharks starting to circle a little faster at about 20-25 ft. Ok, this is the reason for the post. I am in the water dealing with a situation that looks like it could esculate very quickly. I take a second and focus on the information I have read on here about these situations. Usually when we encounter sharks, we just head our way and they seem to head their way. This is different. Kelly starts to swim to the boat that has begun to approach. I look down again and I now have 8 sharks circleing a little closer with one or two starting to dart in and out of the circle. An alarm goes off in my head that this is not ok and something bad is about to happen. I know you are not supposed to give up your fish. I am thinking that these sharks are here for the fish and may take it with a side of me if they have to. I am thinking I have seconds until one of the sharks darting in and out of the school is going to take a run at me. I quickly realize that I am in deep shit and this powerhead that we all carry that kinda gives us a sence of being in controll in these situations is a joke when your looking at 8-10 sharks. I release the fish and grab the handle of the gun and try to get some distance between me and the fish. In about 3 seconds as i look up to see how close the boat is I feel a slight resistance on the gun and the fish is gone. The boat is about 50 yards away to I begin to swim to it with my gun pointed down thinking the boat noise is now the best thing for me. I look down one more time before be hoisted out and no sign of them. I post this for anyones opinon and sharing of information. There is no doubt that the info I have read here is what kept me calm and collected as I strategized on the cuff how to deal with the situation I was in. Yes, I wanted to crap myself, but that was not going to help. I may not have done eveything correct, but again it was unbelievably calming to have the knowledge to apply to what was happening in front of me so I could try to understand it and take action to get out of it. On another note my son DJ placed 5 th with his 29.5 lb. AJ.