Ron,

There are a lot of folks who fish but not a lot of folks who truly understand the power that a large fish has. I went out for shark twice last fall with my buddy on his boat out of Montauk Long Island, 25 miles southeast of the Montauk lighthouse on the Atlantic. We caught mostly Blue sharks in the 9-12' range with one particular beast of about 13 plus that took four of us taking turns on the rod about 45 minutes just to raise it up where could see it and then another 15 minutes at the surface to get it in where we could release it. We had an 8' Mako shark up at boatside that literally EXPLODED into a violent roll when my buddy's friend stuck a gaff in him just ahead of the tail so he could lift it up for my buddy to get a tail loop on him. When it was all said and done, that shark left us standing there with our jaws hanging as we watched him swim away as if it was a routine event for him. Long story short...you just can't understand the power and speed of these creatures until you've been there and personally done battle with them!

Side note:
My 56 year old carcass was able to wrangle a 10' Blue shark by myself in about 25 minutes and I was whipped for about the next half hour!

BPS