AN EXCITING CHASE.

Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17006, 20 January 1927, Page 8

AN EXCITING CHASE.

BIG SHARK CAUGHT. BATTLE AT SYDNEY HEADS. A party of shark hunters, looking for excitement just inside Sydney Heads, found plenty of it. With Mr Charlie Messenger, the well known shark fisherman, the amateurs hooked a huge shark, and after a fight lasting for an hour and a half decided that they had experienced alt the thrills that shark fishing can provide. But at the end of that time the real thrill was provided. Mr Messenger, fearing that a previous inglorious ending might be repeated through the straightening of the hook, dived overboard and hitched a rope to the tail of the fighting monster. The amateurs in the launch gasped. "Charlie" merely hopped back into the boat, and the victim was secured. According to Mr Messenger's experience, the shark, which was about 15 feet in length, was one of the largest known to have been caught inside the Heads. Before the actual fishing commenced a decoy was placed under the boat, comprising a large hook baited with mullet. Then the hook, line, and float were thrown overboard. The hook was about half an inch in diameter, and mullet were threaded on it and up the chain attaching it to the rope for a distance of half a yard. Fifteen yards from the hook an empty sealed kerosene tin was fixed for a float. A Mighty Tug. The hook had been overboard onlyten minutes when there was a mighty tug on the line, and the fioat disappeared under the water; the fight was on. Immediately the decoy hook under the boat was hauled aboard. Rolling over and over, Ihe white of its underparts glinting in the sun and lashing the water into a milky foam, the shark soon had the whole of the available line overboard. This went on for half an hour, with the big fish getting weaker at every tug on the line. Suddenly there was a tremendous jerk, and "the float came to the surface. When pulled aboard it was found that the hook had been straightened out. The shark that had escaped was estimated to be 15 feet long. The parly had to wait an hour and a half before the next bite. This was the 15-foot shark, o.nd so hard was it fighting at the end of the longstruggle that Mr Messenger went over-board with the tail rope, while Mr Andrews, assisted by the others, hung on to the line. Once safely secured, the shark was despatched with a harpoon, taken, to Watson's Bay and opened up. Inside were a fowl, half a dozen ribs of beef joined together minus the meat, remains of a shoulder of mutton with the flesh still on, showing signs of n carving knife, more bones, and four whole mullet.