Fisherman Believes He Hooked 'Biggest Shark Ever Rod-Caught In British Waters'

A fisherman in Wales believes he hooked 'the biggest shark ever rod-caught in British waters'. You can see the huge catch here:

Rob Rennie was shark fishing on his charter boat 35 miles off the coast of west Wales when the massive creature bit on to his mackerel bait.

With the help of five others, charter boat skipper Rob, from Hereford, spent two hours bringing in the mako shark, which is a cousin of the great white.

Once they were able to bring it alongside their boat, they estimated its length to be 11ft, and factoring this in with its approximate girth, the team calculated its weight to be between 800lbs and 1,200lbs.

The current record for a rod-caught mako shark in UK waters stands at 500lbs and dates back to 1971, however, the rules on claiming such records state the specimen must be weighed on land. This would have meant killing the animal and bringing it on board, which could have been extremely dangerous, but Rob is hoping the record can be claimed based on his estimates.

BNPS

The 49-year-old has also become only the second person to catch a blue, porbeagle, thresher and mako shark - the latter of which is considered to be by far the most aggressive.

The International Shark Attack File (ISAF) has recorded 42 mako attacks on humans between 1980 and 2010, three of which were fatal, along with 20 boat attacks.

Recounting the moment he locked on with the creature, Rob said: "Makos are dangerous - probably on par with the Great White. This one was huge. He was so big that we couldn't reel him in and had to actually drive the boat to him and pick up the slack.

"I would say it was at least 11ft and had an enormous girth. My guess would be that it weighed between 800lbs and 1,200lbs. That would make it the biggest rod caught shark ever in British waters, which would be amazing.

BNPS

"In days gone by claiming a record meant killing the shark which we absolutely weren't going to do. I am still hoping we can claim a record using a system based more on trusting the honesty of the skipper.

"I'm really pleased with it as a catch and the reaction from the fishing world has been unbelievable."

Topics: Sharks, UK News, Animals

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey