926-Pound Mako Caught Off New Jersey Coast

BRIELLE, NJ — It's not as big as Mary Lee or Hilton, the two great white sharks that have tickled the attention of Twitter users and Jersey Shore residents, but the 926-pound mako shark weighed in Brielle on Saturday is nothing to sneeze at.

"It took up the whole cockpit," said Capt. Dave Bender, owner of the Jenny Lee, said of the 926-pound shortfin mako that was caught on his boat early Saturday morning. It appears to be the heaviest shortfin mako caught off New Jersey in recorded history.

The 12-foot shark, which was weighed in at Hoffman's Marina in Brielle, is 70 pounds heavier than the current state record, an 856-pounder caught in 1994. But the mako caught on the Jenny Lee will not be an official state record because the fish was landed through the combined effort of the six men who chartered the Jenny Lee.

Bender and his mate, Capt. Kevin Gerrity, had left the dock in Brielle with the group on Friday for an overnight offshore fishing trip at the Hudson Canyon, Bender said. They caught one yellowfin tuna Friday, but after dark switched to fishing for sharks and swordfish, he said.

"He has waited 35 years for today's moment," Bender said of Gerrity.

About 11:30 p.m., the mako took their bait, and the fight was on, he said. It took the men about 90 minutes to get the shark close enough to the boat to land it, Bender said, and the rod snapped in the process.

"The first time we got the leader the fish took off again," snapping the top 6 inches off the rod, he said. "I thought for sure we were going to lose the fish."

Once they finally got the shark to the boat for good, it took another hour to get it in the boat, Bender said.

"We couldn't fit it through the tuna door," he said. They finally had to use a combination of tail ropes and multiple gaffings to work the shark into the back of a boat.

To become a New Jersey state record, the fish would have to be caught by a single angler, according to the saltwater fishing record application on the state Division of Fish and Wildlife website. It's not uncommon, however, for anglers in a charter to pass a fishing rod during a trip that's not part of a fishing tournament.

New Jersey has been keeping records of saltwater fish catches for more than 80 years; its current records include a 13-pound, 8-ounce Atlantic bonito caught in 1945. The Division of Fish and Wildlife maintains records for 90 species (31 freshwater and 59 saltwater, including 17 in the spearfishing category) in the division's Record Fish Program. There also are several categories that have been retired as of May 2007.

The New Jersey mako record, set in 1994 by Christopher Palmer, who caught his 856-pound mako in the Wilmington Canyon, will stand for the time being.

The current International Game Fish Assocation world record for a shortfin mako is the 1,221-pounder caught by Luke Sweeney on July 21, 2001 off Massachusetts. A 1,323.5-pound shortfin mako was caught off the California coast in June 2013 but that does not appear to have been certified as a record by the IGFA, which maintains the official world records.

Regardless of whether the 926-pounder is a state record, it will be a fish that Bender, Gerrity and their charter — Matt, Mike, Steve and William Miccio, Matt Lockett and Nick Rondenella — will talk about for years to come.

"Every night offshore for the last 10 years he (Gerrity) puts out a shark rod, and every night I tell the customers, 'We ain't gonna catch no mako,' " Bender said with a laugh. "Kevin's passion and persistence has paid off today for a fish of a lifetime."

Photo via Capt. Dave Bender, used with permission

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