Readers who aren't into social networking or don't even own a computer or TV may not have heard this, but someone saw a bull shark in the Chattahoochee River last week.

No, really.

It was near the rapids below the Eagle and Phenix Dam. And a guy was out there skiing behind a Speedo. (No wait, that's a swimsuit)

A guy was out there skiing behind a Sea-Doo that pulled the skier onto a flat upturned rock and SCHOOSH! He shot off and jumped the shark.

He's going to kick butt in next year's Master's Water Ski Tournament at Callaway Gardens, once the bull shark reaches Robin Lake. If he ditches the leather jacket and stops calling himself "The Fonz.”

Jumping the shark alludes to an episode of "Happy Days” I must have missed, because I'm pretty sure I'd remember seeing Fonzie jump a shark.

When a TV sit-com drowning in obscurity flails for notice, it "jumps the shark.”

No, really

Last week an e-mail said a witness helping a fisherman who'd hooked something heavy in the river saw a dorsal fin, before the big fish got away. The witness thought it was a bull shark, known to prowl fresh water to feed.

So, some here were led to believe a bull shark lurked in the Chattahoochee River rapids, in middle Georgia, well north of three federal dams between Columbus and the Gulf. And some believed it.

No, really.

They schooled to the RiverWalk to see the shark. A local TV station shot some video. A Broadway restaurant started serving "shark fin soup.” A photo sent around showed what looked to be the "Jaws” star surfacing off the RiverWalk near the Eagle & Phenix powerhouse.

So many locals went shark fishing bait shops ran out of chum, so folks had to make their own.

OK. Yeah, I made that last part up. So what?

At least one guy went river shark fishing, because he was interviewed on camera. And he might be the brightest bulb in the tool shed, actually, because if someone had hooked something so powerful and well-endowed finwise it looked like a shark, the first thing we'd do is try to land it to see what it was.

But believe it or not, this shark tale was untrue.

No, really.

The Internet entrepreneurs who hatched this hoax were trying not to make people here appear naïve, but to make a big splash and show the power of social networking.

When on Facebook I asked why folks believed this, they said it was fun to suspend belief (like thinking the shark got through the dam locks), so it was worth the wonderment.

The phrase "bull shark”could be cut to initials, and like "jumping the shark,” he words "fishing for bull shark”could be a metaphor — for chasing BS.

A bull shark here in the rapids is unbelievable.

A giant alligator, however, so totally would be plausible.

No, really.