Haven't posted in awhile but figured I'd share this with you guys.
This year I've moved my boat over to fish out of New London Connecticut this summer. I had a Shark charter for this past Saturday and decided to fish offshore of Montauk where I had a feeling we could catch a thresher for clients.
After only 20 minutes after setting rods out in the slick we were hooked up! Battle took 3.5 hours on stand-up gear. We had a shot at end game at 2:45 mark and my harpoon dart hit mark but shark was deep and didn't penetrate enough and pulled out as I put pressure on line luckily I told clients to not let guard down prematurely and we still were tight on rod and reel. Fish took off and after another 45 minutes we got another shot as I leadered and pulled it up enough to stick it good , then a shotgun to head to finish it.
Official weight is 537 pounds 108" from nose to fork of tail and 175" total length putting it at 14.5' tip to tail.
Even with Block and tackle and 4 guys we were unable to lift it into the boat so we were.forced to tow it to nearest port of Montauk to crane out of water and process for return trip to CT. Absolutely an Epic day!
From my research this fish ranks #2 all time in CT and #3 all time NY for Thresher Shark. It unfortunately like the others mentioned above don't qualify for IGF record because we took turns on reel. Current ct Official record is only 468 pound so we bested that by alot but unfortunately won't stand as Official record.
