1,149.5-pound shark caught in Gulf
Sunday, March 01, 2009
By JEFF DUTE
Outdoors Editor
Bill Walters' entire body was still sore Friday. That's understandable, considering that on Wednesday he landed what is believed to be the heaviest shortfin mako shark and third-largest of any fish species ever caught on rod and reel in the Gulf of Mexico.
Walters, a 56-year-old dog-obedience trainer from Granbury, Texas, was on just his second saltwater fishing trip.
"It's definitely a fish of a lifetime," said Walters, who was on a three-day tuna-fishing trip aboard the Orange Beach-based Sea Spray.
When the 11-foot, 8-inch shortfin mako Walters single-handedly fought for 6cm HALF hours was officially weighed at a dock in Port Fourchon, La., the digital scales settled at 1,149.5 pounds.
From everything he has read, Walters figures the shark lost anywhere from 5 to 10 percent of its body weight between the time it was put on the boat late Wednesday night until it was weighed 12 hours later.
Considering the International Game Fish Association shortfin mako world record is 1,221 pounds, Walters' fish most likely would have challenged that mark fresh out of the water.
Only two larger A 1,280-pound hammerhead caught off Florida's west coast in 2006 and a 1,152-pound bluefin tuna landed in 2003 appear to be the only larger catches recorded in the Gulf, according to Press-Register research. Walters is filing paperwork to have his fish recognized as the new Louisiana state record.
Walters said, besides a bunch of tuna filets, the crew split an additional 500 pounds of mako roasts.
Much of the shark's weight can be attributed to its massive 90-inch girth and the fact it had eaten a couple of 50-pound wahoo just minutes before Walters' hook sank into its massive jaw.
Two of Walters' boatmates were excitedly battling the pair of wahoo while trolling along the 50-fathom curve out of the mouth of the Mississippi River when first one line, then the other went limp.
The anglers were befuddled at first by what had happened, but the mystery was quickly solved when a huge dorsal fin, then an equally massive tail, broke the surface in the middle of a quickly spreading blood trail less than 50 feet off the boat's stern.
From his perch high on the Sea Spray's bridge, skipper Bill Staff had the best view of the attack. He knew only one predator had the speed to catch up to a wahoo and so quickly devour it: a mako.
With that single word in his head, Staff said he immediately ordered one of his shocked deckhands to begin throwing overboard pieces of a small skipjack tuna caught earlier to keep the big fish interested. The other deckhand retrieved a shark rig that stands ready for just such an encounter.
It was shortly before 3 p.m. when the nearly 8-pound chunk of skipjack tuna (threaded on a 12/0 Joe Booth hook) disappeared into the cobalt-blue water, Staff said. It was attached to 20 feet of 800-pound cable. That was tied to nearly 100 feet of 100-pound-test top shot and, finally, nearly 700 feet of 150-pound braid was spooled onto a Shimano TLD50 two-speed reel.
Walters' turn Through nothing more than luck of the draw, when the mate turned and asked, "Who's up?" someone pointed at Walters.
Walters said Friday that prior to leaving for the three-day tuna-fishing trip to Louisiana's famed Midnight Lump, he and his nine boatmates had drawn numbers to determine the order of who would get the rod when a fish hit.
"The next thing I know this huge fish is jumping 20, 25 feet out of the water right behind the boat, and the fight was on then," he said. "It actually scared the (heck) out of me. I thought I had a Buick on the line."
Walters credited Staff, his mates and the other crew members with helping him endure the long battle, though he said the thought of giving up the rod never crossed his mind.
"My whole body was hurting, but I was determined to get it in. Everyone on the boat was giving me a lot of support and cheering for me," he said. "Bill and his crew did a great job. Without their expertise, support and professionalism, I would have never been able to catch this fish.
"It's the biggest fish I've ever seen."
It took another 90 minutes just to get the shark through the tuna door of the 65-foot Resmondo. Staff said Thursday that the feat of loading the shark was only accomplished after one of his deckhands suggested tying a rope to its tail, then backing the boat into a wave and washing the fish into the cockpit.
Floated it in Staff said that with 11 people pulling on the rope, he backed into the biggest wave he could find, and the fish "just floated right into the boat."
"This may sound real crazy, but we hooked and lost a shortfin mako last year that I know would have gone between 1,000 and 1,200 pounds," he said. "That fish did three backward flips just like this one, it swam into the current the whole time like this one and fought just like this one. The really weird thing is that fish was hooked within a quarter-mile of the exact spot and within a week of when we hooked this one. I know these fish are migratory, but we're all wondering if this is not the same fish."
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