Another reason I prefer flying over surfing

Beach Fanatic

Oct 15, '07 · 5:43 PM5641

844-Pound Shark Caught Off Florida

AP
Posted: 2007-10-15 09:22:18
http://news.aol.com/weird-news
DESTIN, Florida (Oct. 14) - Six friends went to a fishing tournament looking to catch some grouper. They caught an 844-pound shark instead.

Photo Gallery: Huge Creatures

William Hatfield, Northwest Florida Daily / AP

Mako Shark: An 11-foot shark hangs from the scales at the Destin Fishing Rodeo in Destin, Fla., Saturday. After it was gutted, the 844-pounder still weighed 638 pounds, breaking the tournament's record by 338 pounds.
http://news.aol.com/story/ar/_a/844.../20071014210609990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001# http://news.aol.com/story/ar/_a/844.../20071014210609990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001# 1 of 6

The fight by Adlee Bruner and friends to pull the 11-foot mako shark onto the boat from the Gulf of Mexico took more than an hour on Saturday. But when they made it back to land, it was a record for the decades-old Destin Fishing Rodeo.

"It was tense," Bruner, 47, said about the fight to land the shark, which has a mouthful of huge, fearsome teeth. "I've fished for 40 years. I've never see one that big."

Bruner and his fishing buddies were on a 52-foot charter boat with Capt. Robert Hill, about 70 miles southwest of this beach city in northwestern Florida.

The fishermen first noticed the big mako because it kept eating grouper and scamp they had hooked.

"It was like 'Jaws,"' Hill said.

Hill hooked a 2-foot amberine on as bait and tossed it out. The shark eventually hit it.

After the long fight, the shark was gaffed and eventually gave up after its tail was roped. But even then, the men could not get the big shark in the boat. They tied it to the stern with three ropes and made the four-hour trip back to land.

The shark was hoisted at the rodeo before a big crowd. It tipped the scale at 844.4 pounds.

After it was gutted, the mako still weighed 638 pounds, breaking the tournament's previous shark division record by 338 pounds.

Replies

Beach Fanatic

Oct 15, '07 · 6:20 PM#2

Wholey CRAP!!

SoWal Insider

Oct 15, '07 · 7:19 PM#3

Just punch it in the nose and calmly move toward shore.

fartblossom

Oct 15, '07 · 7:22 PM#4

that is why i stay out of the ocean....

SoWal Insider

Oct 15, '07 · 8:38 PM#5

Just punch it in the nose and calmly move toward shore.

You go first! :wave:

Moderator

Oct 15, '07 · 9:55 PM#6

Adlee is my cousin. I talked to him tonight to see if W had asked him to the White House for lunch, yet. He said that he has been on the phone all day and is perplexed how something like this gets a life of it's own.

Apparently, the Ft Walton paper wrote a small blub about it this weekend. The editor called Adlee yesterday to tell him that he was going to do a better write up and was going to post it to the the AP wire. The editor to Adlee that people go bonkers over big fish stories. He was definitely not kidding.

A side note...
Adlee told me that while he has caught countless sharks this is the first one that he has ever brought back in his life. The head and jaws are being mounted. The rest will be processed to eat. Makos are good eaters...