Epic is a word that gets bounced around a lot these days. But a boatload of anglers fishing out of St. Augustine, south of Jacksonville on Florida’s Atlantic coast, experienced a hook-up on Dec. 27 that might truly be described as epic.
Joseph Tooker, Arun Ramalingam and Chris Gustafson were aboard Capt. Chris Townsend’s “Undecided,” a 26-foot Angler with twin 150 Yamahas. The plan was to spend the morning targeting cobia on some 40-mile reefs before scooting a little farther offshore to high-speed troll for wahoo.
As it turned out, the anglers hooked into a little more than they bargained for.
Ramalingam was battling the fourth cobia that was bound for the box that morning when a surprise visitor showed up, a huge mako shark they estimated to weigh at least 500 pounds.
“In two bites, the decent sized cobia was devoured,” Tooker said. “The mako circled the boat eyeballing us looking for a second meal. It was at this point that we decided to try our luck in hooking and landing this massive mako.”
Tooker grabbed one of the onboard wahoo trolling rods and baited it with a beeliner. The setup included a typical wire high-speed trolling lure for wahoo with a 10/0 hook and a 250-pound-test single-strand wire leader. The main line was 100-pound braid.
“With all of us quivering with anticipation, we waited for the bite,” said Tooker. “The mako circled around and grabbed the bait several times and dropped it. Finally the big girl ate. I free-spooled the line, and this time she ate it good. As she swam away looking for another meal, I locked the drag and waited for the rod to double over. I set the hook like I’ve never set the hook before. We were connected to the biggest mako shark I have ever seen.”
Tooker said the big mako just circled the boat, never running more than 20 yards away from the anglers, which allowed Gustafson to capture some awesome photos and video.
For more than 30 minutes the anglers tried different methods to convince the fish to run, jump or somehow tire itself out, but it wouldn’t do anything other than circle and follow the boat. With the “green” fish on the line, and nothing but a straight gaff on the boat, landing the big shark became the issue.
It’s probably a good thing the mako finally decided to sound, severing the 100-pound braid with a swing of its tail. The anglers were left with a great story and some awesome footage to prove it happened.
If you’ve experienced something cool or weird on the water or in the woods and have photos to prove it, send your story and photos to nick@theanglermagazine.com. We might just share it with our readers nationwide.
Joseph Tooker
904-677-6183
easymoneyjax@gmail.com