CLASSIC CATCH: Brett Sinclair, left, with Chris Bonnici, Aaron Piekarski and the 260.8kg monster shark. Source: PerthNow
Posted on 08/15/2011 12:11:54 PM PDT by Red Badger
NOW this is a shark tale. Brett Sinclair broke a world record when he hooked a 260kg tiger shark during a game-fishing competition near Karratha in WA.
Amazingly, he caught it on a 6kg fishing line, which is usually used for snapper and salmon. He beat the world's previous best catch on 6kg line by more than 100kg.
The 27-year-old from Sydney was taking part in the Dampier Classic when he landed the shark from a rented boat, just after midnight on August 1.
It took more than three hours to reel the shark in.
"We had already caught a small tiger shark an hour or two before," Mr Sinclair told The Sunday Times.
"When this one took the bait, I thought it would be about the same size. I actually asked the other lads if they wanted to grab the rod and have a go, but luckily they said no."
Mr Sinclair, an industrial chemist, was with his cousin and the boat's skipper. "It's only a small 19ft (5.7m) boat," he said. "When the shark started to run, we had to drop the anchor and go after it. It took hours for the shark to tire."
It wasn't until the shark rose to the surface that Mr Sinclair realised how big it was. "It's an intense moment." he said.
"You've got a 250kg monster thrashing around. The tail was smashing the boat and water was going everywhere."
The shark was too big for the boat, so it had to be tied to the side of the vessel and towed to shore. Mr Sinclair said he caught the shark near Dolphin Island in the Dampier Archipelago. It is the biggest catch recorded in the 40-year history of the Dampier Classic, which is organised by the King Bay Game Fishing Club.
And, not only is it an Australian record, but also a world record for the biggest catch on 6kg line.
The Dampier Classic saw another Australian record broken this year when a fisherman landed a 27.4kg tiger shark on a 1kg line.
CLASSIC CATCH: Brett Sinclair, left, with Chris Bonnici, Aaron Piekarski and the 260.8kg monster shark. Source: PerthNow
“HAHA! WAIT TILL THE TAXIDERMY MAN SEES WHAT WE BRUNG HIM!”
So are they able to sell it? What do you do with a big dead shark?
Now there’s a “good” shark.
Teriyaki shark-on-a-stick would be good start..............
Well, a lot more than you could do with him if he were alive...
Its gotta be butchered right away, as shark meat (and all other fish related to shark, like skates, rays, etc.) spoils quickly due to high concentration of urea in the meat. An unpalatable ammonia-like flavor is what you get.
Had skate with that tinge of ammonia flavor at a high end restaurant once, and the clueless chef came out to insist that this was normal. BS!
Fisherman on Martha's Vineyard, Mass. display a massive 1,100-pound tiger shark Sunday, July 17, 2005. Unfortunately, the fisherman failed to capture first place in the monster shark derby because their boat was six minutes too late in returning to Oak Bluffs harbor with its catch. (AP Photo/Chris Lewis, ohmycod.com) Then again that could be Ted Kennedy washed up...
Impressive catch, especially for Massachusetts. I’m a bit to the North, on the New Hampshire seacoast, but I can tell you for certain that Tiger Sharks are very, very rare in these waters.
Sweeeeeet. A 12-footer that qualifies as a “monster”. That says more about the fact that most species of shark are being fished to the edge of extinction than anything else.
Shark tournaments are idiotic throwbacks to “Jaws” -era mentality of sharks’ place in the food chain.
WAIT TILL THE TAXIDERMY MAN SEES WHAT WE BRUNG HIM!”.. HA! HA! Wait Till they see the bill for stuffing it. Take a picture, try to measure the length and girth, and let the thing go. Get a fiberglass model and it’s as good as the corpse on your wall. I’m fishing full time now and won’t kill anything that doesn’t go on the BBQ.
Sharks are not built for towing anchored boats full of people.
Cut it up and make a nice chumcicle for the next trip.
Australians eat a lot of shark. It’s the most common fish sold as “Fish and Chips” in Australia and virtually every little shopping strip has a fish and chips takeaway place. There are five within a mile of my house.
Man-o-man, that is ONE impressive Tiger shark! What a magnificent predator...glad to see HIM hanging up there!
Are these chain restaurants, or are they “mom and pop” types?
I was down at Point Judith in Rhode Island (in the Eighties sometime) partying with a bunch of friends, and someone came in and said that someone had brought in an enormous Great White shark.
We drove over, and by the time we got there, they had already taken the carcass away...but the jaws and pectoral fins were still there.
We went up, and each one of us stood inside those huge, bloody jaws. As I stood there up to my knees in this bloody mess, I couldn’t believe the teeth. They were bone white, completely triangular and somewhere between 2 and 3 inches on a side of what looked like an equilateral triangle. But the serrations on the teeth looked so sharp I couldn’t even bring myself to touch them. They looked like if you even touched them, you would cut yourself. I remember being squeamish, wondering if I did, if I would get some kind of bizarre infection.
The other thing was the pectoral fins. They had been cut off , and a chinese guy was sitting on the curb with a HUGE knife, trying to saw through the fin.
It was longer than my arm, by a long shot. the guy was not making any headway, and he kept trying to sharpen his knife on the curb...
I was so bummed they had got rid of the carcass, the sheer size of it would have been amazing to see.
LOL, I think if you are on a small boat fishing with 6 kg line, that counts your catch as a monster!!!!!
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