Rok Max regular customer, Stuart Newell, has recently caught a stunning 7.5ft thresher shark estimated at easily the 350lb mark! He took a few moments to report on his day shark fishing - read his report below.
Well - where do I start! We had a rather early 4am to get to our location on the south coast. Once all setup we started our drift at around 9am, I had taken a friend along after some recent misfortune a few weeks ago.
Luckily I had remembered to take some frozen bait with me because, even with both of us feathering for the entire day, we only managed to catch 4 mackerel for fresh bait - a complete contrast to last time out.
Anyway, around about 3hrs in I was just about to adjust something on one of the rods when it just started ripping off, I picked it up and looked down for a second to turn the ratchet off when my mate shouted out "OH MY GOD" - all I heard was a splash as the fish landed back in the water.
It knew how to play the game, going off on long runs then charging at the boat followed by going under the boat and then down deep.
The change from mono wind on leaders to Rok Max all wire ones certainly made the difference and after a short while I had my first thresher shark alongside the boat! We proceeded with a quick measurement - 5ft to the fork of the tail and estimated at around 150lb - then we soon had it back on its way.
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We had a brief spell of cheering, back slapping and high 5's then calmed down a little and got the rods back out, more out of habit than any other reason. The calm didn't last long, a short while later I was looking for one of the floats and even said to my mate "can you see the float" when yes you guessed it, that rod ripped off too! You couldn't imagine the expletives that came out of my mouth as I picked the rod up to set the hook and saw a huge fish take to the air.
I had promised my mate Burt that, if we got a second run, then he was on! So I swiftly told him to get the harness on and then buckled him in ready for the fight. This was the first time he has ever been attached to a fish like this and he was shocked by the speed and power of these awesome thresher sharks.
He did an absolutely sterling job and we managed to get some great footage which - some of which you can see here.
After an epic 1 ½ hour battle with a fish that tried every trick in the book to get away, we finally got her alongside the boat! Again we took a quick length measurement alongside the boat and let her glide back to the depths.
A length of 7.5ft and easily around the 350lb mark we gave her.
Both fish were tagged with Scottish shark tagging scheme tags and swam off strongly to fight another day!
We drifted around for a few more hours playing some celebratory music - singing and dancing around the boat - before heading home to end an amazing day!
Until next time, TIGHT LINES, Stuart Newell.
