Texas Angler Reels in 11-foot Tiger Shark from Shore
OutdoorHub Reporters 08.16.13
While some people enjoy Discovery Channel’s “Shark Week” in front of a television, others would rather experience these marvelous creatures firsthand. Last Friday, angler Wayne Wimmer landed an 11-foot, four-inch-long tiger shark on a beach in Corpus Christi, Texas. It was the end result of a grueling three-and-a-half-hour duel with the fish. Wimmer attributes the catch to the support he received from his fishing team as well as the large crowd that had gathered over the course of the reeling in.
“One guy actually brought me a chair to sit down in at some point in time,” Wimmer told KRIS. “My legs were shaking, my lower back was killing me. I had no energy left.”
Wimmer was in fact a new recruit to the group of anglers that he had been fishing with, all veteran shark fighters and familiar faces at local tournaments. Still, the anglers were surprised by the size of the shark Wimmer had reeled in, doubly so because they were fishing from shore. Tiger sharks have been known to grow over 16 feet, but such specimens are rarely pulled in from a beach. Although the species has a tendency to swim near shore and shallow reefs, larger sharks generally stick to deeper waters. In terms of deadliness, tiger sharks are second only to great whites when it comes to recorded attacks on humans. However, these confrontations are rare.
Wimmer and his fellow anglers took a few quick pictures of the shark before releasing it back into the water.
“They are majestic animals and that big, there’s no reason to kill,” Wimmer said.
The anglers also tagged the shark with a tracking device they had received from a researcher during a previous tournament. The device will be able to record the shark’s travels, just in case Wimmer wanted to know where his catch-of-a-lifetime visited after its release.
Video of the catch can be seen below:
