Several teenagers on a fishing trip in Florida hooked a big fish that they weren't expecting. They caught a huge 12-foot, 1,000 pound great white shark.
Four teens were on Taco Perez's 45-foot charter boat Hooked Up on the Port Everglades Inlet off of Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday when they managed to hook the giant shark, ABC reports.
"When we got the leader we were like what the hell ... this is too big to be a bull shark. We were as surprised as anybody," Perez told ABCNews.com.
The fishing group was led by Capt. Paul Paolucci on the six hour trip.
"We had been fishing for about four hours," Paolucci said. "He swam up and ate our big bait, the bonito. When we saw him, we knew it was going to be a fight. We knew it was going to be something really big."
The teens, Harry Andro, Josh Shailer and Jared and Tanner Elliott, are all members of the Tallahassee Community College basketball team, so they put up a good fight with the shark, but the shark fought harder. The teens, along with one of their mothers and father took turns trying to reel in the great white shark. They fought with the animal for two hours.
"Everyone was really excited," Paolucci said. "It was amazing to see. They didn't know what we were up against."
At one point during the struggle, the hook slipped out of the shark's mouth but it caught him on the side. After a while, the teens decided to let the animal loose.
"We ended up just cutting him loose. Nobody wanted to stick their hand down there," Paolucci said.
While the shark was a big thrill, that wasn't the only catch of the day. The group had a successful fishing outing as they caught mahi-mahi, king mackerel, bonito, and black fin tuna. But the shark was probably the most memorable.
"We catch a lot of sharks," he said. "But nothing like that. That was by far the biggest."
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
