I meant to tell you guys the story earlier this summer, but I was just too swamped to get on here.
I've been trying to get the Tiger record for quite a while. South Carolina has a decent shark fishery, but I truly believe our Tiger fishery is the best in the world.
It was a decent Tiger year, but definitely not the best one. My first Tiger of the year came in April and turned on solid in May. I believe we went 12-13 days straight with a Tiger at one point and some days we hit 3. By mid-June I had already landed my 3rd grander of the season, which turned out to be the last grander and the beast.
I was out with a repeat customer with his friend and ther 2 sons. It was an afternoon charter and they wanted a monster shark. It seemed kind of slow that day with a couple of Lemons and Blacktips in the morning, but they really wanted a monster. We sat up in one of my usual spots and hit a nice 100# blacktip right off the bat. I sent out the larger bait and within 20 mins, BAM. The rod bent over slow and the reel started creeping out. She went slow at first, she didnt know she was hooked. About 2 mins went by and that reel sung and didnt stop. My typical rule is, if the shark is over 10ft, you have to pull anchor and chase it. It didnt take long to figure out we needed to go, the run was consistent with no breaks. The original angler was wearing down. I had the drag set pretty tight and I dont use harnesses, its all stand-up gear with just a belt. About 45 mins went by and the angler started giving up, so I took the rod and put it on angler #2. He lasted about 20-30 mins and we had to switch back again to the orginal angler. On huge runs I'd put the boat in gear just to minimize the line depleting so quickly. The guys kept asking how large I thought the Tiger was and my guess kept getting larger, we couldnt budge the damn thing. I think I started saying it has to be a minimum of 600, then I said it has to be over a thousand, then I said I had no clue. We couldnt break her so I started to think she was possibly foul hooked. I could go on and on about the fight in this fish, but I'm keeping it short. The guys kept taking turns on the rod. As the shark got closer it became more difficult because it was straight underneath us and I had that drag nearly locked. I finally saw the leader 3 and a half hours later. I've had customers battle sharks for 4 or 5 hours, so this wasnt the longest fight, but when I grabbed that wire it felt like I was stuck on the bottom. The majority of you dont me from squat, but I've landed my fair share of tigers, and in my years of guiding daily I've never seen anything like this. My first glance, I yelled HOLY SH#@! The thing was a true giant. I thought I had seen every sized tiger shark in the ocean. From 200 pounders to giant granders, but this one was a freak of nature fish. And when I say freak of nature, I cant stress to you how much this shark was on another level from anything I'd ever seen. My customers went nuts, the kids were scared to death and I'm thinking how the hell I'm going to tow this thing in. To make another long story short, I came to my senses, my adrenaline leveled off and realized that this cant be recognized as a record because of 2 anglers fighting it. Not only that, but I'm using line way above the 130# class. So, with my customers absolutely going bananas and the shark still swimming up right, I cut her loose about 3ft from the hook. I catch a lot of tigers twice in the same summer, some I've caught 3 times. The largest I caught the previous year I got her again 2 weeks later, so I was hoping to God I'd have another shot with her, but never did.
Obviously I didnt weigh the girl so I dont have an exact weight. She was 15ft long and I guarantee she was bigger than 1780. How wide? This is no exaggeration, the smallest part of the sharks back (where it connects to the tail) was almost as big as my waist. Granted I am only 150lbs. I've spent hours researching Tigers on here. If you Google "record tiger shark", you can find dozens of huge tigers, many in the 1200-1400 range and I have yet to find one in her ballpark.
Some might doubt my guess on the weight, but I'm absolutely positive of what I had. Fishing the SC Shark tourny every year and watching dozens of sharks of all sizes get thrown on the scale has given me a decent edge on guessing a weight boatside. We weighed in a 600 pounder last season, but this was a different animal, it could have eaten her.
My shark season is over, I havent hit one since the 3rd week in October. I dont think these stock of Tigers go south, I think they head straight out and circle Bermuda. But if she does, one of you guys are going to make some headlines.
RECORD #1 This story brings back memories of Rene and the few shots he had at truly humongous Record fish and was not able for one reason or another to win the battle.Rene had a giant Bull shark in the Gingerbread Reefs off Great Isaac lighthouse (Bahamas)it was close to 11 feet long over 700 lbs, he fought it for two hours and had it tied up on the stern cleat of his friends almost new 28 Grady White but the flying gaff that held the sharks head against the hull had dug a deep groove in the gelcoat and the captain got pissed off and cut the shark loose as Rene slept.
RECORD #2 Rene fought a giant Tiger from the old south beach pier for 6 hours and it died on a bouy 600 yards out and in the morning they went out on a aluminum jon boat to try and retrieve the shark .Rene said the shark was 14 to 15 foot long and over 1500 lbs ,,as they tried to pull the still live thrashing Tiger free of the lobster trap rope the #19 wire broke and the shark slowly sank to the bottom and slowly floundered away tired but not beaten,This took place in the 1970's It was his biggest Tiger ever.Year later Rene in 1996 caught a 661 lb tiger with me at Ocean Cay Bahamas and he told me the shark he lost on the bouy could bite the 11ft 4 661 pounder in half ---that's how much bigger it was.
Sharks that big and beyond normal sizes only have the misfortune to bite an anglers bait once every decade. Next time you hook something similar you may be older and think differently once you realize that Title shots are few and far in between.My 13 footer in 2008 almost killed me in the June sun after 1 hr 20 minutes we had her boatside but GIANTS SUCH AS THE ONE YOU HAD take much longer to beat and are rare.I hope you get another shot at her in 2012.Good luck and thanks for posting the wonderful event.
SOUTH FLORIDA SHARK CLUB -President SFSC-Founding Member est 1983 SFSC-Website Administrator BIG HAMMER SHARK TOURNAMENT -Founder Rene Memorial Sharkathon -Founder NMFS Shark Tagger
I think Norman Bateman had one on ready to gaff about that size off Port Isabel, issues with the fish's size and the ball size of the gaff man probably kept Walter Maxwell's record safe
Bob
O C----it must be crazy to catch that many big sharks for as long as you have-----i guess sharkin from land is hard to make yourself do after so much boat action---you always have great reports
i am surprised you do not see more white sharks----- 
they seem to be making a comeback
sonny
O C----it must be crazy to catch that many big sharks for as long as you have-----i guess sharkin from land is hard to make yourself do after so much boat action---you always have great reports
i am surprised you do not see more white sharks-----
sonny
Sonny,
Thanks for compliments. I miss fishing on the beach. If I had time in the warmer months I'd like to give it a try. Its pretty nice being in a boat with the ability to chase her down, though. I think I'm spoiled.
I've got an eye out for the great white 
I've been out deep a few times this winter chumming my azz off all day (Chief Brody style) catching bottom fish, no signs. One day just after New Years it looked awesome. Water was really clear and 59 degrees, pods of bonito blowing up all over and we saw 4 right whales on the way in. I have some video on my phone from it but I dont know how to post it on here.
Nice story, I think it is satisfying to see and know your own fish even if you didn't get an official record you know what you had and that is the most important in my opinion.
By the way... what's your biggest hammerhead so far? and have you managed any nice makos or threshers?
About your comment on SC being the best tiger fishery, the reason being is because you have mastered your techniques and fish hard enough to make it that way, I think if you had a chance to fish some other contending waters like Bimini, Australia, Africa, and maybe even Florida, you may bring about some of the same size if not bigger tigers.
Just an average fisherman.
Gave this excellent post a sticky.
SOUTH FLORIDA SHARK CLUB -President SFSC-Founding Member est 1983 SFSC-Website Administrator BIG HAMMER SHARK TOURNAMENT -Founder Rene Memorial Sharkathon -Founder NMFS Shark Tagger
X2 and X3
Nice story, I think it is satisfying to see and know your own fish even if you didn't get an official record you know what you had and that is the most important in my opinion.
By the way... what's your biggest hammerhead so far? and have you managed any nice makos or threshers?
About your comment on SC being the best tiger fishery, the reason being is because you have mastered your techniques and fish hard enough to make it that way, I think if you had a chance to fish some other contending waters like Bimini, Australia, Africa, and maybe even Florida, you may bring about some of the same size if not bigger tigers.
Thank you, I know we had that record boatside and in my mind I've broken it....but the publicity it would land me would be off the charts. I dont like killing for just killing, but in a extremely competitive growing business any news is great advertising, and that Tiger record would pay my mortgage for quite a while.
Re: Biggest Hammer, mako, thresher.
I drool when I see some of these pictures because our fishery is almost opposite of what you guys have. I've never even seen a mako or a thresher. A few makos have been caught out at the gulf stream (60 miles out) but I've never heard of one closer in. Our hammerheads are small, 300-400 pounds is a beast. The state record is 588. For some reason those giants stay south, I guess. We get a decent tarpon migration from Florida, and thats when the hammers show up but they arent like the ones you guys catch.
Do you know any good shark fishing piers in the carolinas