Michael and Jason Didio were jigging for bait about 100m from a popular surf spot when a Great White emerged from the blue.

“There were swimmers not too far from us and this thing had no fear, it just came straight in and took a chomp at the boat,” Tony said.

Tony started filming the encounter and had just stepped out onto the back platform to get a better shot when the shark got a mouthful of aluminium forcing Tony to retreat to safety behind the motor.

The crew spotted the three-metre ‘Baby Jaws’ swimming in around seven metres of water in between Valla and Main Beach in Nambucca Heads.

“It was a beautiful thing, I’ve only ever seen around four of ‘em in my lifetime,” Tony said.

“My goal one day is to get in and pat one of these fish.”

Great White sightings are usually a rare phenomenon but the Didios say that encounters like this one are becoming more frequent.

“A friend saw one just yesterday, and then another local fisherman saw one about three days before us,” Jason said.

But Tony says it’s not the Great White Sharks that concern him but the sheer number of more aggressive Bull Sharks he’s spotted just off the shoreline and in the Nambucca River lately that’s getting him worried.

“I’ve lived here my whole life, and the number of Bulls that are coming into shore now is alarming,” Tony said.

The three have their own theories for the recent shark surge.

Michael believes the record number of Humpbacks and their calves migrating north for the Winter is providing an incentive for the larger predators like Orcas and Great Whites to try their luck closer to shore.

“When you’ve got big bait, you get big fish” Michael said. 

That theory is disputed by University of QLD Associate Professor Michael Node, who says there’s no evidence to back this up. 

Tony says the Queensland Government’s ban on commercial netting in some areas has increased Mackeral numbers around Grassy Head, attracting the larger predators.

Another of their theories is that the NSW Department of Fisheries’ changes to shark bag limits is starting to visibly influence population numbers and shark sizes.

Tony loves and respects the sharks as the vaccuum cleaners of the ocean, but thinks something should be done soon about their population boom.

“I’m totally against nets and I don’t want to see a shark cull. But in the future I don’t know if we’ll have much choice,” he said.