The day we caught a shark

My friend Elliot just arrived from the nearby island of Sanibel. We were on North Captiva, a small island only accessible by boat. Elliot got to the dock with a cooler full of mullet and barracuda. We had one clear objective: catch a big shark.

We started at the beach, casting 15-foot rods into the surf with a barracuda head tied on. Fishing is a waiting game, so we sat and waited. We kicked back a few beers and watched the sun roll back into the horizon. It had been a couple of hours with no luck. Despicable.

We reeled the bait in and decided to try the boat now that it was night and sharks would be feeding. We loaded the boat with rods and fish and set off. Once again, we cast out the bait and wait.

This time was different. Within minutes, we saw the rod tip bend down towards the abyss, and the drag was screaming. Fish on. Finally. Elliot grabbed the rod and set the hook. He predicted this fish was around 300 pounds based on the way it was fighting. He switched off with me, and I immediately felt the sheer strength this shark had.

It was a long fight; the shark came close, then would jet away. It was like a pendulum. Back, and forth, back and forth. Eventually, we saw the fin. One steel colored triangle fin just off the port side of the boat. Elliot used his hands to guide the line to the boat. A big tiger shark with stripes across its sides. A beautiful fish. It was dark and wet, and we couldn't snap a photo as we cut the line and let it swim away.