LONG FIGHT WITH SHARK

Taranaki Daily News, 7 January 1927, Page 9

LONG FIGHT WITH SHARK

BIG GAME AT RUSSELL. Wellington, Jan. 5. Among the recent followers of .big game fishing in the North is Captain J. Mawson, late relieving master of the Niagara, who left Wellington yesterday for San Francisco as captain of the Makura. After relieving for three voyages on the Niagara, Captain Mawson, who was njarried recently, decided to go fishing to Russell. Early one afternoon, while trolling in a launch, the line gave a run and soon Captain Mawson knew he had hooked something big. At first and for some time it was thought to be a big make shark. The fact that it did not rise and leap out of the water did not destroy that belief, as the mako sometimes prefers to fight below the surface. With a line only as stout as grocers’ string it was touch and go as to how long the fish could be held, but by the skilful manoeuvring of the launch and a quick wind-up whenever there was a chance, the line held hour after hour. Although the fisherman’s arms ached and grew tired, he never; dreamt of cutting away, and believing that he had “the father of all makos’’ he hung on. The sun went down and the stars shone out. Evening drifted into night, midnight came and went, and still the fight went on, but in the early hours the quarry began to tire of plunging about and consented to be towed ashore, drowned in its own element. It was only at the end of the hunt that Captain Mawson’s dream of a super mako was shattered. It turned out to be a 2501 b. blue shark, which had been foul-hooked under one of its fins.

Although Captain Mawson was not able to straighten his fingers the next day he had the satisfaction of putting up a new record in big fishing, that of playing a 2501 b. blue shark for 11 1 hours a schnapper line.