AN EXCITING CATCH

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXIV, Issue 11934, 28 January 1936, Page 1

AN EXCITING CATCH

THREE BOYS IN A PUNT

TOWED TO SEA BY

A SHARK

Surely no boys who ever went fishing without permission ever had such an exciting time as three European lads who ’.he at Lautoka iu the Fiji Islands.

The eldest was 13 and his companions about 11. One afternoon the eldest boy hit on the idea of commandeering his.father’s punt and taking his chums Ashing, so off they went outside the coral reef until they noticed a shark swimming in circles round the punt. Not content with leaving well alone, the eldest of the boys decided to try to hook the shark, casting out his strongest line. The shark snapped it up and darted away to sea. The boys had tied the end of the line to the punt, and they had no knife to cut the line, nor could they untie it;’so they were towed behind the shark for an hour. At one stage the shark took them a mile out to sea, but fortunately it circled back.

At last the shark began to get tired. and the boys got out their paddles and succeded in reaching the beach with their captive shark. It measured over nine feet.

Of course, the boys were rather proud of their fishing exploit, but their parents thought only of the foolhardiness of the affair, saying that had the punt capsized the shark would certainly have attacked the boys. The leader of the expedition received a thrashing from his father for having taken the punt without permission, but probably he will remember the catching of his first shark long after he has forgotten all about the sanctions.