Mary Lee's off Seaside Heights!

[Gobblengrunt]

Last year while land based shark fishing at the end of June, I hooked up to something huge off cape may point. It bent the metal sand spike and ripped one attachment bolt to the plastic rod holder. It spooled me with 200 yds of 65# braid with the drag tightened to a point I thought my reel was going to blow. I have caught some huge sand tiger sharks off the surf but have always been able to land them (biggest was 8+ foot approx 250#). Many local sharkers thought I hooked up to a juvenile white shark. They claim they are around the bay mouth more often than most think. Who knows! I'm bringing bigger gear this year!!

[JHbowhunter]

1991 I was shark fishing out near the triple wrecks on a 30' Black Watch I helped run every weekend. We were fairly new to sharking, but the brothers that owned the boat were fairly well geared up but lacked fishing acumen so I was a welcome addition and together we built a lot of great memories over the next 12 years.  On that day - it was calm, sharking was slow. Around 10:30 am a boat went by trolling a nice spread, and we saw a marlin following which was cool. So we knew there was at least some life. The most bizarre thing ever occured next - several acres of dolpins (mammals) erupted - but they were acting strange and not feeding on anything... after a few minutes it subsided. Shortly after that, the line closest to the boat got picked up by something and it was just a light click... click... click...  "Bob" picked up the rod, and it felt like something was on... He set the hook and holy cow - it took off running like mad, the international 50TW was screaming.   I was like - finally, our first Mako shark... We had to get all the lines and and start backing down on the fish, we were running short on line... This went on for hours... No sight of fish.  Finally we got a look from the tower and saw this massive submarine of a shark, so we were now thinking in 76 degree water, it's a monster tiger shark, still very cool. This went on for several more hours, get it within 200 feet of boat near surface, and then off it would go again. Around 3pm or so, we were able to back down on it enough that we were able to get it on leader, and we finally got a good look at the head and body as it turned sideways to the stern. "Holy sh#t it's a great white!" we all said in near unison.  The beam of boat was 11', this shark had at least a foot to spare on either side of stern. I would guess it was 13' long, maybe bigger. It was impossible to hold on leader, and down it went again. "i think we need a bigger boat" was uttered more than once. We contemplated putting a flying gaff in it, but I felt the fish was still too green and didn't want that thing cleated off on the stern of boat. One of the brothers had the bright idea to kill it with the bang stick they had on board, which in retrospect was probably even a worse idea. I was designated as the bang-sticker.. (it was legal to catch a GWS back then). Next time we got it up on leader, I hit that sucker square between the eyes and nothing happened, other than the shark woke up and nearly dumped the reel again. The shells were no good thankfully - the moisture of being on the boat for too long  did them in. Eventually the 50lb mono wore thin and popped, and it was just as well. I suppose it would have been a 15 minutes of fame had we somehow boated that beast and got it back to the dock, but the fish would have gone to waste so all in all, a great experience with a more practical ending. I did report it to Ristori and we got a blurb in the Star Ledger (big deal, I know). I am sure most called BS but it really did happen.   I always felt that that shark must have been stalking those dolphin, and happened into our chum slick... That was a memory to last a lifetime.

Edited June 7, 2017 by JHbowhunter

[Rusty]

 That was a memory to last a lifetime.

 

Sounds like it was.    

[Nomad]

Last year while land based shark fishing at the end of June, I hooked up to something huge off cape may point. It bent the metal sand spike and ripped one attachment bolt to the plastic rod holder. It spooled me with 200 yds of 65# braid with the drag tightened to a point I thought my reel was going to blow. I have caught some huge sand tiger sharks off the surf but have always been able to land them (biggest was 8+ foot approx 250#). Many local sharkers thought I hooked up to a juvenile white shark. They claim they are around the bay mouth more often than most think. Who knows! I'm bringing bigger gear this year!!

could have been one of those big rays?

[BenedictGomez]

I'll be in cape may in 3 weeks shark fishing from the beach, I hope she hangs out there! I can't imagine hooking into that!!

 

If anything happened to her, the reaction to this would be Pedals x 1000.

Edited June 7, 2017 by BenedictGomez

[Gobblengrunt]

could have been one of those big rays?

I caught a couple of rough tail stingrays last year 100# plus, was not one of those. I clearly felt head shakes which you don't feel with rays. There was some BIG rays in the area last year. Who knows? Could have been a seal for all I know!

[1563621]

8-10 years ago fishing out of Little Egg Inlet in a 21' Fishhawk, Drifting for Fluke, Had a G White just off my stern, had to be 14-15 ft. Friggin thing was huge!. Lots of Dolphin in that area also.