MONSTER SHARK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22351, 24 February 1936, Page 6

MONSTER SHARK

ANGLER'S LONG FIGHT fe PROBABLE WORLD RECORD CATCH FROM SYDNEY BEACH [from our owx correspondent] SYDNEY, Feb. 14 For more than five hours last Thurj day night, Mr. Eric Roberts, of Maroi>. bra, battled with a huge tiger shark, which he hooked while fishing with rod and line, about 35 yards from the shore. Mr. Roberts was almost exhausted at the end of the struggle, but by that time a crowd of spectators had gathered, and willing hands aided him to gaff tho shark and drag it out of the water. " After 1 hooked the shark, I never thought I would land it," said Mr. Roberts, when interviewed. " It took the bait —the head of a salmon— not more than 35 yards from where I was standing. Things then became awkward. It raced away past an o'd wreck that lies near the channel, ji'nd past the rocks of the point. I had to move along the beach the other way to keep the line from these obstructions. I have lost sharks before through the line fouling them. " My line was 800 yards long, and three times it nearly ran out, but I managed to turn the shark just in time. You could htive dived through its jaws. I estimated two minutes after 1 hooked it that it was 15ft. long and weighed 12001b. " Fishing for sharks has been hobby for 12 years, and J. have caught scores of them —all sizes. When I cut the shark open I found that it was full of mutton birds." The shark was not officially weighed, because there was no weighing gear" available at the time. Mr. Koberts, fearing that someone would take the jaws as a souvenir, cut then; out him-, self and took them home. The shark, which measured 15ft. tiin. when taken from the water and is estimated to weigh 15001b., is believed to be the largest ever caught with rod and line. Mr. T. C. Roughlev, economic zoologist at the Technological Museum, said that it was a great pity that the shark had not been weighed. " If it weighed more than 10401b.," he said, " it would be the largest fish ever caught on a rod and line. The world record for a shark caught on a rod and line was established by E. E. Bullen, of Sydney, just off Port Jackson several months ago, when he captured one weighing 9821b. It was a tiger shark. " The world refcord for a fish of any kind caught with a rod and line is held by Zane Grey. In 1928 he caught a marlin weighing 10401b. at Tahiti. Both these records were made when fishing from a boat."