Anglers’ Mystery Fish Turns Out to Be 1,000-pound Great White Shark
OutdoorHub Reporters 04.10.13
Four anglers fishing near Fort Lauderdale, Florida got a shock when they discovered the fish they had been fighting for two hours was in fact not a bull shark or sailfish, but a great white. According to Hooked Up, anglers Harry Andro and Josh Sailer along with Jared and Tanner Elliot were fishing a little over a mile from shore when the shark took their butterflied bonito on a kite line. The four were all students at the same Atlanta high school and members of its baseball team.
“We were fishing in 180 feet of water, the shark actually came up from underneath and attacked it,” Captain Taco Perez, owner of the charter boat the students were fishing from, told Outdoor Hub. “We couldn’t really see it, we only saw a glimpse of the head and the tail.”
They assumed it was a bull shark because great whites were not known to frequent the area. In his years on the water, it was the second great white that Perez had sighted. Once hooked, the students took turns battling the shark as they slowly pulled it in.
“We expected it was a real big bull shark, but then we noticed that it was too big to be a bull shark,” said Perez. “ As it got closer we were like, ‘no, that’s a great white!’”
The anglers estimated the shark to be about 13 feet long and weigh roughly 1,000 pounds. A few hurried photos were snapped as the shark swam alongside the boat and then it was released in good condition.
