Crew catches record 926-pound shark off New Jersey coast
BRIELLE, N.J. -- A fishing crew has reeled in a 926-pound Mako shark, and New Jersey officials say it's the biggest shark catch in the state's history.
The boat's crew was fishing about 100 miles off the coast in an area known as Hudson Canyon on Saturday. The shark was weighed and displayed in Brielle later that day.
"When I saw it, I turned around and looked at Dave and did the old cliché: we're gonna need a bigger boat," Captain Kevin Gerrity of The Jenny Lee said.
On an overnight fishing trip aboard the Jenny Lee out of Manasquan last weekend, the Miccio family and a friend snagged the 12 foot long giant, but reeling it in was a fight.
"It's pulling your knees into the boat, going to rip the rod out of your hand and finally I said, 'someone's got to take this rod, I can't hold it,'" Steve Miccio of Trenton said.
"It was huge. I go scuba diving and I swam with sharks, but never seen nothing that big," Matt Lockett of Bordentown, NJ said.
"We fought the fish for about an hour and then it took almost another hour and a half to two hours to get the fish on the boat," Mark Miccio said.
The fishing rod snapped at the top during the battle to land the giant fish.
It took everyone on board but the captain to haul the monster into the boat.
One look at the fins and the frighteningly sharp teeth confirmed the catch.
"By the time we reeled it in, I started shaking. Once I saw it, we knew it was a shark and it was just unbelievable," Bill Miccio of Columbus, NJ said.
In order to qualify for an official state record, the rules say only one person is permitted to reel the fish in; it can't be the product of teamwork. But that's OK with Steve Miccio.
"I'm not worried about having my name in the book or anything. We all had a hand in it," Steve Miccio said.
"We know that we caught the biggest shark ever in New Jersey. We know that we broke the state record," Captain Bender said.
The giant shark has been filleted into almost 400 pounds of meat. None of it will go to waste
"It's all cut up and we divided it up between everybody and we're giving it away to whoever wants to try it. We're having a party at my house Friday," Matt Miccio said.
And so these anglers have a giant fish tale to tell: they caught the biggest shark ever in New Jersey on their first try at deep-sea fishing.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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