An angler in Australia has caught and released a black marlin estimated to weigh 950 pounds, but not everybody is impressed.
Grander Watch on Saturday shared an image of a giant black marlin jumping behind a boat off Cooktown, Australia. The Facebook description boasted that the marlin, which was released, weighed an estimated 950 pounds.
Apparently, Keith Poe, a prominent California-based shark tagger, was not impressed.
Beneath the marlin post, Poe shared an image showing a massive great white shark alongside his boat and commented, simply: “5,000 pounds.”
Poe told FTW Outdoors that he caught and tagged the shark years ago off Mexico’s Guadalupe Island.
Keith Poe poses with catch of an estimated 5,000-pound white shark.
As for the catch of a 950-pound black marlin, it’s impressive. The catch of any marlin weighing close to or more than 1,000 pounds (a.k.a. grander) is considered rare.
The all-tackle world record for black marlin stands at 1,560 pounds. The record, set off Cabo Blanco, Peru, has stood since 1953.
A prominent Southern California shark tagger has documented his tug of war with a ferocious mako shark, he said, to showcase the species’ “beauty, power, and strength.”
A prominent Southern California shark tagger has documented his tug of war with a ferocious mako shark, he said, to showcase the species’ “beauty, power, and strength.”
“I’m their ambassador,” Poe told FTW Outdoors.
The accompanying footage shows the 12-foot shark refusing to release a bonito tied to a rope and fighting for possession with head shakes, much in the way a dog might refuse to let go of a stuffed toy.
(There was no hook in the bait; the shark could have let go at any time.)
The footage opens with Poe tapping the shark’s head, as if to signal the start of a competition, as the shark surfaces with the bonito inches from his boat.
The competition ends after about a minute, when the shark releases the bonito and Poe declares, “That’s right, it’s my fish baby! Come back again when you want to play!”
Poe tags white sharks and mako sharks for the Marine Conservation Science Institute. He typically keeps hookless baits in the water to let him know when sharks arrive in the chum slick.
“When I want to tag a white shark or a mako shark, I use a hook and a hand line,” Poe explained.
The MCSI team, including Poe, are featured in the National Geographic documentary “Counting Jaws,” which examines a newly discovered great white shark aggregation site off California.
Poe also will appear in several episodes of the Discovery series, “Shark Week,” which begins July 24.
A Southern California fisherman who tags sharks for research recorded what he described as a “monster mako splashdown” late Sunday near Santa Catalina Island.
A Southern California angler who tags sharks for research recorded what he described as a “monster mako splashdown” late Sunday near Santa Catalina Island.
Interestingly, the adult female mako shark took a live mackerel tied to a fishing line and jumped seven times against the drag of heavy tackle despite not being hooked.
The accompanying footage, captured by Keith Poe, shows four of the seven jumps.
A second video shows mako sharks taking Poe’s hookless baits and leaping in the dark to rock music.
Poe, who tags sharks for the Marine Conservation Science Institute, told FTW Outdoors that he keeps hookless baits in the water to alert him when sharks arrive in the chum slick.
“When I want to tag a white shark or a mako shark, I use a hook and a handline,” Poe said.
Keith Poe, who has tagged more than 5,000 sharks off California over the years, posted a video Sunday showing him hand feeding an 11-foot mako shark as though it were a pet.
Keith Poe, who has tagged more than 5,000 sharks off California, posted a video Sunday showing him hand feeding an 11-foot mako shark as though it were a pet.
Poe’s vast experience should be enough of a notice to novice fishermen that this is not something they should consider trying the next time they venture onto the ocean.
In the Facebook footage, accompanied by “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” by the late Israel Kamakawiwoʻole, the shark makes repeated passes behind and alongside Poe’s boat.
Poe on Tuesday uploaded the same video to YouTube, without music. That footage can be viewed below.
The shark, always surfacing off the stern and rising to the tuna carcass held over the port rail, seems careful to bite only the carcass instead of the hand that holds the bait.
So why does Poe, who encountered this mako shark 47 miles west of Marina del Rey, practice this routine before he begins the tagging process?
“This was the result of my hand feeding her for hours, calming her down and getting to know each other for the capture and tagging that was come,” Poe told FTW Outdoors. “I am trying to minimize the capture shock.
“For me, it’s all about being minimally invasive and I take it very seriously.”
Poe explained that mako sharks, the fastest sharks on earth, swim swiftly and warily when they appear in his chum slick.
“When they first come to the boat they’re very aggressive because they have to kill to survive,” Poe said. “They’re usually too smart to take a large hook until I build their trust, and they don’t freak out nearly as bad once I hook them.”
Poe, who uses hand-line gear and heavy line, said this mako, which measured 10 feet, 9 inches, was hand fed for nearly four hours.
After Poe finally hooked the shark, he had it tagged and released in only 30 minutes – a remarkably brief period considering the immense power a shark of this size possesses.
Poe probably wasn’t always so painstakingly considerate. He once tagged 54 mako sharks in a single night in outer Santa Monica Bay.
But mako sharks do seem to appreciate the hand feeding. Poe cited a 12-foot shark he tagged off Santa Catalina Island in 2019. “She came back and ate out of my hand, after I tagged and released her, for another 30 minutes,” he said.
That shark, named Cinderella, is among the dozens of mako and great white sharks Poe has tagged for the Marine Conservation Science Institute.
When an entangled North Atlantic right whale was found dead off South Carolina on Feb. 27, several great white sharks were spotted by the same air crew.
When an entangled North Atlantic right whale was found dead off South Carolina on Feb. 27, several great white sharks were spotted by the airplane crew.
Capt. Chip Michalove, owner of Outcast Sport Fishing, developed a plan. He’d wait for a storm system to pass and try to find the carcass, and hope there were still a few sharks to possibly catch and tag for scientific research.
He set out Friday morning and not only managed to locate the carcass, he discovered that it had been transformed into a multi-ton buffet for at least seven and possibly many more great white sharks.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CMBYMWWBj9s/
“I’ve never seen anything like it, sharks were circling our boat for the entire eight hours,” Michalove, who has a permit to tag and release white sharks, told For The Win Outdoors. “They were biting the boat, pushing the boat, and biting the motors so much we had to pull the motors out of the water.”
Michalove added: “I never felt nervous. There were just so many in the area that it was more interesting to observe than to catch.”
Photo: Taylor Horton
When he returned to port he shared a video clip via Instagram showing a large shark biting flesh from the carcass. His description reads, in part:
“Maybe one of the best days I’ve been alive today. So much work went into finding this whale, and the pay off was one I’ll never forget. From 9 a.m. till we left it was one great white shark after another. Part of the time we hooked and tagged, other times we just watched.”
Photo: Taylor Horton
Michalove and his crew tagged two white sharks, a 12-footer and 16-footer, and spent the rest of the time “absorbing the chaos.”
The right whale, nicknamed Cottontail, died after a long and agonizing period of being entangled in commercial fishing gear, despite NOAA Fisheries’ attempts to plot a challenging disentanglement mission.
Photo: Taylor Horton
North Atlantic right whales are critically endangered and Cottontail’s death changed NOAA Fisheries’ Unusual Mortality Event count to 34 dead and 14 seriously injured.
The UME began in 2017 when 17 right whale deaths were recorded in Canada and the U.S. The leading cause of death is “human interaction,” notably fishing gear entanglement and vessel strikes.
Photo: Taylor Horton
Great white sharks typically begin to show off South Carolina in early winter, after the apex predators’ summer and early fall feeding season at seal rookeries off Cape Cod, Mass.
Great white sharks that generated so many headlines off Cape Cod during the summer and fall are beginning to show off South Carolina.
Great white sharks that generated so many headlines off Cape Cod during the summer are beginning to show off South Carolina.
Capt. Chip Michalove of Outcast Sport Fishing logged his first tag-and-release of the season Sunday off Hilton Head, involving a young female shark that “took off like a bullet” after the hook was removed.
“She originally grabbed the bait right behind the boat, but missed the hook,” Michalove explained on Facebook. “About an hour later she came back more aggressive and took it all. Perfect hook set and perfect tag application.”
And perfect photo.
The junior apex predator measured only 8 feet, but opened wide to reveal a classic set of great white shark choppers before she was set free, allowing for a spectacular image capture (top and bottom images).
Salt Creek Outfitters accompanied Michalove to gather footage for a documentary and afterward stated, “Man are we glad we did, this shark put on a show for us yesterday and she wasn’t afraid to show off her smile, either.”
Michalove, who has a scientific permit to tag white sharks, told For The Win Outdoors that white sharks are just beginning to arrive off Hilton Head.
“They’re right on time this winter,” he said. “The water is much colder than usual so I was curious if they already went by.”
Michalove said early arrivals tend to be juveniles, with adult sharks showing a bit later and ranging “for a few months” between South Carolina and Florida.
“By Christmas or early January we get a 14- to 16-footer, like clockwork,” the captain said.
The sharks do not have thousands of seals on which to prey, as they do during the summer feeding months in coastal waters off Cape Cod. Michalove said they’re more opportunistic beyond Hilton Head, “looking for anything sick, dying or weak to eat.”
–Images showing the great white shark caught and released Sunday are courtesy of Outcast Sport Fishing and Salt Creek Outfitters
