A 12-foot great white shark was caught off Pensacola Beach, Florida and the moment was captured on video.
Shark fishing guide John McLean of Big John Shark Fishing Adventure arrived 2 hours before sunset to set up for the night’s fishing. He took three baits out by kayak; one he dropped just past the second sandbar around 300 feet from the beach, and two a little farther out.
Around 7:30 p.m. his client from Homedale, Idaho got a bite on the closest bait.
“I called my friend 15 minutes into the fight,” McLean told Tracking Sharks. “I knew he had something big.”
His client struggled against the massive fish as the fight time increased. McClain uses premium fishing gear that has twice the drag of a normal reel which helps prevent line breakage.
After 40 minutes, and nearing the maximum amount of time McLean will allow before cutting the line, the shark was finally brought into the breakers. To John’s surprise, it was a white shark.
This was the clients’ first saltwater fishing trip, and they had no idea how rare it is to hook a white shark.
“They said ‘John if you weren’t as excited as you were, we would have thought this was a normal thing’,” he said. “I was like you guys just caught the rarest shark in the Gulf of Mexico!”
McLean practices catch and release during his expeditions and has a custom made dehooker. The design keeps the user away from the shark’s mouth and allows the hook to be removed as quickly as possible.
“It’s my best asset besides a rod and reel,” he said. “You can get shark rash from their skin and they have staph on their skin. If you stand over top of the shark, it can take the skin of your leg.”
He and a friend quickly waded into the water and assessed the situation. The hook placement was in the corner of the jaw, which made pulling the hook with the specialty tool that much easier.
Because white sharks are federally protected, McLean knew there was no time for official measurements but he was able to estimate the shark’s length.
“I’ve caught a lot of 12-foot-plus sharks and there is no doubt in my mind that is was 12-foot. It could have been 12 1/2 to 13 foot,” he said. “It’s protected and I wanted to release it.”
After the hook was out, McLean began pulling the shark into deeper water. That’s when the breakers seemed to pick up.
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“The only time it was hard, was when the waves started crashing. It seems to be a theme whenever we catch massive 11- to 12-foot sharks, it seems like the waves are right there on the sandbar.”
To complicate matters, the former professional hockey player was wearing waders that were filling with water, but he was determined to get a clean release of the shark.
“My adrenaline was kicking real hard,” he said. “Later on, it hit me, I was in chest deep water releasing a great white! At the time I didn’t think of it, but after I thought it may not have been the smartest thing.”
After releasing the shark, he said it swam off strong, and the video shows this.
McLean who has been shark fishing for 5 years and running charters for 3, practices catch and release on all sharks he catches and participates in the NOAA shark tagging program.
“I have an appreciation for every shark I catch, and want to make sure it swims off. That’s the most important thing.”
