Monster shark shatters record

After a three-hour fight and a 14-hour ordeal to find a certified scale, Jeff Shindle, of San Antonio, was finally able to have his picture taken with his record-breaking catch.  The winter season finds Jeff and his fishing buddies, Capt. Ben Reyna and Barry Reyna, owners of the 26-foot Glacier Bay catamaran reel smooth, targeting big shark.  This year, because of increased fishing pressure in the Port Aransas area, the Reyna brothers decided to run the boat out of Port Mansfield.

These dedicated anglers have been making the five-hour trip from San Antonio twice a month in the quest for a record fish.  Shindle fishes with a custom rod made for him by David Mata of Bimini Custom Rods.  The rod is aptly named Record Chaser.

Early on this Jan 13 trip the anglers saw a big shark while fishing the area where they had caught a 400-lb mako just weeks before.  They knew this fish was really big, probably bigger than the record 707.5 pounder they eventually brought to the boat.  Both fish were hooked using half of a jackfish on 50 lb test line.  The boat was running approximately 50 miles east of Port mansfield. 

The strike came about 3pm.  The fight lasted about three hours while the huge shark jumped, dived and ran.  On several occasions the fish disappeared completely lurking under the 26-foot cat.  Exhaustion from fighting the fish gave way to the fear that the shark might emerge and jump inside the boat.  This is not an altogether uncommon occurrence.  It was a classic example of the battle between beast and man.  Luckily, the fish came to boat just about sunset.  Shindle says that he could never have landed the fish if Reyna had not known exactly how to handle the boat.

With the fish’s tail secured to the stern by rope, the anblers headed slowly back to port.  The trip took four hours instead of the normal two hours because of the caution exercised to keep the fish from breaking loose.  Arrival in Port Mansfield was estimated to be around 11pm.

Subduded, but still alive, the shark was loaded into the back of a Ford F350 with the help of 10 or 11 local volunteers and packed with 45 bagts of ice.  That translates to about 1,000 pounds.  Shindle and Reyna took off into the night headed to Port Aransas in search of a certified scale.  A highlight of the trip was bringing the fish through customs at the Sarita checkpoint where it received lots of attention.  The tail of the shark was sticking out from the bed of the truck, a sight border patrol agents on duty that night will not soon forget.

Fisherman’s Wharf in Port Aransas was the anglers’ first stop.  There they did not find the certified scale they were looking for, but they were met by marine biologists, Scott Holt from the Univeristy of Texas Marine Science Institute.  One fo the leading biologist on the coast, Holt was able to immediately identify the fish as a short-fin mako.  Thus making the decision to keep the fish a good one.  It seems there was a slight doublt about the shark’s exact identification.  Both Shindle and Reyna were worried that the giant shark could have been a long-fin mako.  If this were the case the two would have faced fines ranging into five figures.  The pair was directed to head out from Fisherman’s Warf to Island Moorings marina where a certified scale had been located.  News travels fast in the Port Aransas area and the weary anglers were met by a crowd of folks hoping for photographs of the monster.  By now, it was mid-morning and as the fish was raised on the scale the Reynas and Shindle were finally able to smile.  At 707.5 pounds, their catch not only beat the recent 541 lb record set by the crew of the Chupacabra, it shattered it.  Well, what do they say?  Records are made to be broken.

It’ll take quite a feat to put this record away, but Shindle and the Reyna brothers are anxious to get back out there and look for the one that got away.