Impressive surf catch in FL - 550 lb mako
 

550 lb mako from shore.... No Big Deal! How cool is that?

Impressive catch and even more impressive release. Credit to him.
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Not sure I'd be holding my hands nor have my body that close to a live mako's mouth!

We ran an article in the Long Island edition of The Fisherman Magazine back in January of a guy that landed a 600-pound-plus mako from the surf. Crazy stuff!:jump1:

exactly, that fish must have been pretty exhausted for those pix. sharks have a way of coming back to life. nice catch

Back in the mid-late 1960s we had a neighbor who was from Texas who was in the Navy. He surf fished off of Padre Island Texas expressly for sharks. He had some amazing photos. Built all his own rods, etc. I think he used Ambassador 7000 conventionals (they needed long casts) which is basically light tackle compared to what this guy is using.
DZ

I just cannot wrap my head around the idea of catching fish that you need to be harnessed in... while on land.

I've heard stories about people getting tagged by sharks that had been bled out on the deck for well over an hour.

+1! Those guys are nuts!

From the surf....anybody want to go for a swim?
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With 40+ pound drag.
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Yeah ... while cool, not my favorite story as when I lived on Key Biscayne, we swam a couple of nights during parties ... while we knew sharks were in the area, we were more concerned about stepping on rays ... although we would not do so during the mullet runs as big sharks were always on them in the shallows.

When I read that, I said to myself "yeah, right." However, they maintained validity when the other guy mentioned later in the article having to dig down into the sand and hold his friend from being pulled in. Hell, I know the guys I fish with have prevented me from going overboard while attached to a fish.

What has me puzzled is how can they cast that rod and reel far enough to put whatever bait (abnd added weight) into the feeding area?

Funny, I always thought of makos as open water sharks, not coastal shallow waters.

They must have been fishing near some serious dropoff and have arms like Hulk Hogan.

Personally, I can't believe they were surf casting with a tuna reel and were able to muscle a 500+ lb freight train of a shark from shore.

Too many variables in my opinion.

If I am wrong, I apologize, but I'm just working with what's been presented.

If your read the article, they do have means of getting it past the dead-zone.

Still interesting, but based on that type of fishing...I imagine it's possible.

The article mentioned that a lot of shore shark fishermen use kayaks to get the bait out into the strike zone. It didn't specifically say these guys did that, but I would imagine they must have.

A kid caught a mako from the beach in Falmouth while fishing for stripers several years ago, if I remember correctly. It's definitely rare up here, but I have no idea how close they come to shore in Florida.

Didn't some bluefin show up in shallow water in key biscayne recently
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HOLY cow, that's impressive.

some shark fishermen from shore use a kayak to get the baited line out far enough from shore...paddle back and wait for hook up