Fisherman Gets Taken For A Ride After Hooking A 13-Foot Shark
The New Zealand man was in a tiny kayak, hoping to catch “small fish” on his excursion.
While most fishing excursions are thought to be exercises in relaxation and serenity, they nonetheless involve man’s intrusion into nature where the unexpected can occur. A 41-year-old New Zealand man, James Brown, captured such incident on a head-mounted GoPro camera. He unwittingly caught a 13-foot shark that dragged his tiny kayak through the water for almost half a kilometer before it bit through the line and freed itself.
By the fisherman’s estimation, the bronze whaler shark weighed over 600 pounds, meaning that no amount of resistance from the fisherman or his boat would temper the shark’s efforts to free itself of the line.
Brown said of the harrowing and terrifying experience:
"I had a line down directly beside me and I hooked a small snapper. When I started winding it up, it suddenly gained a couple of hundred kilos. It just gained weight really, really quickly, until the rod was bent right over and started towing me around the sea. I had it on for close to 15 minutes, before it woke up and got frisky. It dragged me around for about half a kilometer, before I think it realised it was attached to a fisherman and it started leaping out of the water. It surfaced about 50 or 60 metres away.
According to MSN, Brown had set out hoping to catch some small fish with a light rod. He also recounts that he was situated in water only about 13 feet deep when the shark bit.
His first thought after the shark swam off free of the line? “Hopefully it doesn't come back and get too angry.”
He may not have come home with a 13-foot shark, but thanks to his mounted camera, he managed to escape the encounter with a truly amazing video and story.