Capt Ed Dwyer's 1239 lb Tiger shark 8/2009

Ed Dwyer made Florida shark fishing history in the 1980's with many very large sharks him and his friends caught from Sebastian inlet north to Melbourne beach.Back then they fished the beaches and were often in the local newspapers with a huge tiger or hammer.Now he has evolved into one of the top dog captains fishing out of Port Canaveral and still continues to make Florida and Bahamas shark fishing history on the charter boat "The Ticket"

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Ed Dwyer, a charter captain out of Port Canaveral for 26 years, lays claim to a long list of big-game catches ranging from 800-pound blue marlin to 750-pound bluefin tuna out of ports from the Carolinas to Mexico. Most have come on four separate charter boats that Dwyer has skippered, each named the Ticket.

But Dwyer is emphatic when he says nothing matches the 1,239-pound tiger shark caught aboard the Ticket on Aug. 8 by Dwyer's first mate Garett VanOrman in waters east of Walker's Cay in the Bahamas.

"In all of my fishing experiences over the years, which include thousands of fish, this was the ultimate catch," said the 47-year-old Dwyer, who was the first Canaveral captain to develop yellowfin tuna fishing east of the Gulf Stream. "There aren't many people who can say they caught a 1,239-pound fish."

It took eight people aboard the 62-foot Ticket to pull the 12-foot, 6-inch shark through the tuna door on the boat's transom. It had a massive 88-inch girth that was bulging with a full-grown loggerhead sea turtle in its stomach.

Too heavy to move from the cockpit of the boat, the huge carcass was cut into three sections and given to Bahamian divers who were spear fishing in the same area. The divers distributed the meat to other Bahamians to eat.

The weight of the shark was determined with a reliable formula using the length and girth measurements.

Needless to say, a catch of those proportions requires skilled techniques not only by the angler fighting the fish but also the captain operating the boat. The critical point comes when others in the party assist in gaffing the fish and getting it aboard. It's as much a team event as any feat in big-game sportfishing.

VanOrman, a 1993 Merritt Island High School graduate who has served as first mate on the Ticket for four years, fought the shark solely with the strength of his arms for 11/2 hours. VanOrman sat in a fighting chair but he didn't have the advantage of a harness attached to the rod and reel.

"He pretty much stayed straight down under the boat and I had the reel at full drag (45-50 pounds) the whole time. It was tough," said the 5-foot-10, 170-pound VanOrman. "I landed a 400-pound blue marlin in a Bahamas tournament a couple years ago and it was no comparison to the strength of this fish." The fishing party consisted of Randy Wright and Ed Partin of St. Cloud, Tommy Farr of Orlando, Al Keeling and Steve Rominger of Geneva and Ed Duda of Oviedo. They had hired the Ticket for a couple of days of bottom fishing in the Bahamas.

For years, Dwyer worked for Duda, who owned the three previous Ticket charter boats based at Canaveral. Jim Jensen of Satellite Beach, who did not make the Bahamas trip, owns the current 62-footer.

Dwyer said they were using baits with electric reels on the bottom in 600 feet of water, on the edge of a sheer drop-off, and they were catching yelloweye snapper, considered one of the best-eating snapper in the Bahamas.

"We kept losing snapper and our rigs as we were reeling them up and we figured it was a shark," Dwyer said. "Then he followed up one of the snapper and I could see he was a giant."

Then the shark left, not to be seen for another 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, VanOrman readied a special heavy-duty shark rod kept aboard the Ticket for such occasions consisting of an 80-wide Shimano reel spooled with 80-pound monofilament line, 12 feet of 600-pound aircraft cable and a pair of giant 14-O hooks. A 6-pound snapper was hooked up for bait.

The shark returned, this time behind the boat, and VanOrman flipped the bait in its direction. It grabbed the snapper and immediately sounded. VanOrman jumped into the fighting chair and the fight was on.

"For the last 30 minutes, we couldn't get the shark to budge," Dwyer said. "I put on gloves and started pulling in 10 feet of line at a time. It was either make it or break it here. I thought for sure the knot was going to break."

Four times Dwyer was able to get his hands on the 12-foot leader, but each time the shark made another dive.

"He was bleeding pretty good from the gills and I could tell he was weakening," VanOrman said. "At that point I thought maybe we had him."

Late into the fight, the Ticket drifted away from the deep water drop-off and over the adjoining shelf with 45 feet of water.

It took a detachable flying gaff and three standard 6-inch gaffs to hold the dead shark on the surface until it could be pulled through the tuna door. "We surely didn't want the fish to sink at that point because we knew the divers wanted it. They were all around us in their small boats yelling for us to give them the shark," Dwyer said.

It took an hour to butcher the shark and slide the three sections back through the tuna door into the divers' boats.

Dwyer kept the 20-inch (inside measurement) jaws for the collection of big-game mounts in his Cocoa home.

Dwyer has bore the brunt of criticism on some fishing forums for not releasing the shark.

"First, he was bleeding badly, and we knew it wasn't going to be wasted because the divers wanted it in the worst way," Dwyer responded. "It went to feed the locals.

"I fish for a living and we've released thousands of sharks. Why do people fish for 80-pound wahoo or 100-pound cobia or other giants? Because you go out there to take the ultimate catch. This was the biggest fish I've ever seen. It was totally legal and not something that's endangered."

Tiger sharks are world wide in temperate and tropical coastal waters and they grow to 1,900 pounds or more. A major nursery ground exists along the Continental Shelf between Cape Canaveral and Georgia.

The largest ever taken on hook-and-line gear weighed 1,785 pounds. It was caught offshore Ulladulla, Australia, in 2004. In 1964 a 1,780-pounder was taken off Cherry Grove, S.C. The two catches are considered in a tie for the all-tackle world records approved by the International Game Fish Association at Dania Beach.

The tiger, which can be identified by its large head, short blunt snout and wide mouth, is highly rated as a game fish because of its fight and stamina. It also has a reputation as a man-eater, second only to the great white shark in fatal attacks documented in the waters of Australia and Florida.

Some Ed Dwyer shark fishing History

This is one of the biggest tigers i remember back in the 1980's reading about it in a Miami Herald newspaper article.Today Ed Dwyer has become one of the most prestigious charter boat captains out of Port Canaveral Florida.He has pioneered yellowfin tuna fishing the Bahama bank east of Canaveral to a spot called "the other side".The incredible fishery that was discovered by Captain Ed Dwyer has caught on in popularity to the point where a few tournaments to the "other side" are held during each year.Captain Dwyer and his wife Candy have been very helpful in providing us with excellent historical shark fishing stories w pictures of the shark fishing that took place along Brevard county beaches during the 1970's and 80's.In those days the East Coast Shark Club of which Ed Dwyer was a member was very active often catching huge tiger and hammerhead sharks that frequently made the local newspapers.Captain Ed Dwyer is currently (2/2009) having a brand new 65 foot charter boat built in North Carolina to be ready for the spring fishing season.Thanks to Captain Dwyer and his wife Candy for there cooperation with us.

Ed Dwyer with his 12 ft 8 inch tiger shark

The write up in the local newspaper

The write up I saved from the Miami Herald nespaper

Ed Dwyer with the huge tiger shark's jaws