Videos and Story: Catching a 456-pound Thresher Shark

by Capt. Rich Antonino, Black Rose Fishing Charters

Sunday, September 15th 2013 will go down as one of the greatest shark fishing days that we’ve ever had on the Black Rose. Funny how things sometimes happen when you’re least expecting it. With a great repeat customer of a father, his 10-year old son, and the father’s older brother, we were planning on a day of shark fishing. My son is almost 10, so they asked if he could come along. Normally, that answer would be “great!”, but Richie had a soccer game. As it turned out, though, I spent Friday night in the hospital getting x-rays on Richie’s hand, thanks to a bad sprain. With soccer out, he joined us.

With kids fishing, I really take a fine eye on the weather. Nothing is worse than rough seas and seasick kids. Fishing is supposed to be fun, not torturous work. Great ride most of the way out, but with a W/NW wind going into an incoming tide, we hit some snotty seas on the other side of Stellwagen Bank. With fading winds in coming soon, I knew it wouldn’t last. Plus, the customers didn’t seem to mind at all — they didn’t know it was rough, which was great for me! As we prepared to stop and set our slick, I looked at my mate, Adam, and we were ready for some action. With a fast drift and sloppy seas we said, “Let’s get the chum out!” It usually takes 60-90 minutes for a good slick to “work”. That’s time for the seas to calm down, for us to get used to the conditions, and for us to set a monster slick. We had three buckets of chum ready to fish.

Five minutes into our drift, the surface bait started screaming! I thought we had dropped our bait onto a mako, but shark threw the hook and we never saw it again. Normally, a blue shark would come right back within minutes. Nope. I felt like we’d lost our chance at a mako. I catch a lot of blue sharks out there — I figure that we catch 30-40 blue sharks for every mako, thresher or porbeagle shark. It’s a numbers game.

After 20 minutes in the fast seas, the sharks found us again. Two sharks took baits and both adults were fishing. It went like that for the next 5 hours. After a while, we saw the sharks around the boat and pitched baits to them with spinning and cod gear. When I know that we’re going to catch a blue shark, I like to use ‘breakaway’ hooks on short wire leaders. My favorite has been Gamakatsu 4/0 Siwash hooks. We haven’t broken one off by accident yet because when you pull hard on the leader, the hook bends and the shark swims away. Easiest release ever! For kids, it’s a great way to get them to practice fighting big fish on appropriate gear. For adults, using spinning gear allows them to fight fish around the boat and learn how to fight fish, especially when they swim under and around the boat. It’s great practice for tuna and it makes you a better fisherman.

As we got close to 2:00, I said “Ok, let’s start thinking of heading home. It’s been a great day”. Next thing you know, Seth, the 10-year old on the rod, screamed as the balloon went under. He bumped the drag up to strike (about 16-pounds of drag) and reeled in tight. Then he reeled some more and set the hooks twice. Perfect. The line was screaming down and he’s on! The line is heading down, but then we saw a splash as the big thresher jumps TOWARDS THE BOAT! It then jumped two more times, showing us it’s full size! Massive. My son was on the roof videotaping the battle from then on.

If you haven’t heard Richie narrate, he’s one-of-a-kind. I mean, he really gets into talking about fishing and describing the battle. He was going nuts; the other boy went nuts, and the Dad went insane. Predictably, the shark dove to the bottom — 600+’ down. No moving it, so Dad took over. High-fives and hugs. Then the worst feeling come — slack line. Nothing. “REEL!!!!” I scream. “That’s not fast enough!” I hollered as nicely as I could. Wade reeled in nearly to the leader when the line came tight again. With the drag set to full on the Okuma Makaira 50II wide…32 pounds of drag screamed out smooth as silk, but didn’t stop. With an exhausting vertical battle, Wade is getting wiped out. His brother, Roy, takes over and once again, the line went slack. Then, the fish rushed full-speed back to the surface. We waited for another jump, but it never happened. Then, once again, it rushed to the bottom. When it got there, though, the battle stopped. Dead weight!

We’re in 600’ of water and we felt heavy weight. That’s it. We couldn’t move it. Pump and reel. Lost line. Pump and reel. With too much stretch in the line, so we couldn’t even reel. It’s the first time I wished that I had less mono and more braid while shark fishing! My backing on the reel is 100-pound Tuf-Line Guides Choice (hollow Core). We only got 30’ into that because the shark stayed vertical.

Adam said, “Let’s go giant tuna style on this one.” With gloves on, the customers pumped the rod up and we gloved the line into the reel as they reeled. As soon as one hand got to the reel, we had to hold the line with our other hand to keep from losing what we gained. Deep knee squats over and over. I figure 700 of them over the next hour-plus! With no wind, everyone on the boat is now hot and exhausted. We gained 1 foot at a time. Sometimes less. But we just keep working.

When we saw the tail, we knew it was huge! There wasn’t much fight left in the shark when he came close, but what a feeling of success roping that tail off! Wow! “Get out the block and tackle! Let’s get this thing in the boat!” This is no easy task with a thresher. Their pectoral fins are far back, so roping it off around them means pulling in the shark sideways. We rolled the tail over and the head, with a lot of help from everyone, came with it. It was 4:00 pm by the time the celebration began, but it was well worth it as the kids, adults, and crew will never forget that day.

Special thanks to Steven James from the Oak Bluffs Monster Shark Tourney fame for weighing the shark for us at the pier. 456 pounds officially! Amazing fish and the best shark we’ve landed so far on the Black Rose. With the fish hanging from the yard arm, it looks like a monster! Even better, seeing the kids with the shark before we steaked it up. It was a delicious fish that fed more than a few neighborhoods over the next week! Get out there and have some fun with your kids, friends, and family. Life is too short, so get out there and have some fun. See you around, smiling!