It was the fish of a lifetime for the bros from Outcast Sport Fishing, a charter fishing boat out of Charleston, South Carolina. After a few hours of catching bull redfish, the most sought after gamefish in Charleston, the Outcast Sport Fishing bros hooked into one of the largest sharks ever caught in The Palmetto State, a great white shark weighing roughly 2,500-pounds.
It took them hours and hours to land this behemoth of a shark, and it was a client from Bulls Gap, Tennessee who was fighting the massive fish aboard the Outcast Sport Fishing boat. They were able to capture some photos of the 2,500-pound great white shark after they got this enormous female shark next to the boat. The fight lasted so long that by the time they landed the 2,500-pounder they had to use the flashlight on their cellphones in order to see what they were doing:
Capt. Chip Michalove, the Outcast Sport Fishing captain who put his clients on this amazing great white shark, took to Facebook to share the story of their catch:
2,500lb Great White Shark caught and tagged and released, off Hilton Head tonight. This is our 5th white shark hook up of the winter, and 3rd one landed. Troy Bowman, from Bulls Gap, TN. had no idea what he was up against this afternoon. We started off catching a few bull redfish, then we hooked into this big lady at 2:50pm. We weren’t exactly sure how big she was, initially, but after a 2 minute blistering run, she jumped completely out of the water, I wish I had a shot of that. After an insane battle, we ended up getting her boat side at about 7pm to apply an acoustic tag near the dorsal and take DNA sample from her pec fin. She swam off healthy and looking forward to finding out where our South Carolina great whites go. Big thanks to John Brackett, who took the time to come see us and take a few pictures in the pitch black night. More pics to come, all 874 of them!
Last January I had my first great white experience, never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that we’re getting to the point where we see one almost every trip out. It took me nearly 12 years to try and figure out the migration, food source and patterns of this amazing animal. Then the trial and error process began on how to stop, and land these fish. Lots of errors, lots of heartbreaking mistakes along the way were made….this is, unequivocally, the most intelligent fish I’ve ever seen. As an old great white fisherman once told me, “you’re going to hook less than half of the whites you see, they’re that smart”. He was right, and the more we study, the more we learn. Nothing illegal was done, and the shark is now going to give us lots of data…so no hate mail. Life is good! -Capt. Chip Michalove
They were able to grab video of the fight, but you don’t really see anything other than a man in pain from fighting a 2,500-pound shark when he expected to be fighting 40-pound bull redfish:
WDEF.com reports that while this is one of the largest sharks ever caught in South Carolina it is not THE largest:
Although this shark may be huge, she’s not the biggest seen in South Carolina. A tagged great white shark known as Mary Lee spent some time off the Grand Strand in 2012. Mary Lee weighed 3,456 pounds and was 16 feet long.
The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources does not keep records on great white sharks because they are a protected species, but the record shark caught in South Carolina was a 1,780 pound Tiger Shark caught in 1964 off the Cherry Grove Pier.
So while these bros from Charleston might not have a record they can at least sleep well at night knowing they’ve landed one of the most elusive and massive species in the world, something that most anglers would never even dream of.
For more on this catch you can click on over to the Outcast Sport Fishing Facebook Page (and take them out for a charter!)
[WDEF]