What a monster this trip. On this sportfishing charter out of Fort Lauderdale, we were on a shark fishing trip. The sharks have been snapping out of Fort Lauderdale this week. Hammerheads, silkys, black tips, bulls, and sand bar sharks. The coolest of the sharks this week was this monster thresher shark we caught just 1 mile offshore of Fort Lauderdale.
March, April and May, every single year here off Ft. Lauderdale and Miami beaches, we get a HUGE migration of different shark species. This year is no different. We’ve been having a banner year on sharks so far this season and its only getting started. These photos are of the thresher shark we caught the other day. The fish weighed around 450 pounds. We guessed at the weight because we released him. The shark was about 12 feet long, including his lengthy tail. The tail of a thresher is incredibly long and equally dangerous. In this photo, you can see just how long the tail of this species is.
Thresher sharks are monsters of the deep. They have a huge eyeball, hence their name, Big Eye Thresher Shark. The eye of this fish was the size of a softball. Thresher sharks use their enormous tails to swipe at and kill their prey. One whack with that muscular caudal fin and whatever it hits is most likely dead on impact. The sheer force of a thresher shark’s tail whack has been known to break chairs off their metal pedastles, crack through fiberglass and even break bones. Trust me, you do not want to be blugeoned by a thresher. When wiring this fish, you must always be cautious to not get in range of the tail.
This fish was rather tired by the time it got to the boat. We got him to the surface, wired him close to the boat for a few quick shots and cut the hooks off as closely as we safely could. It was an awesome fish and I’m so glad you guys got to catch him. Thresher sharks are one of the more rare sharks that you can catch out here, fishing South Florida waters. We’re likely to see some monster sharks in the coming months. Get ready for some good fishing. Sea you out there for some deep sea fishing.
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