Will's 8ft 8inch Bull to air on Nat Geo's "Hooked"

My buddies had been hounding me about hitting the beach so we decided on FridaY.WE GOT A late start were on the beach right at sundown and 1 hour later had out the 16/0,the 14/0 and two smaller combos.My all time favorite bait stingray (15 lb slabs) went out on the two big guns and of course the 16 goes out the farthest and is usually rewarded because of the extra distance.My friends Julio,Nick,Kenny,Mike,Chris and i were hanging out drinking our favorite cold beverage, looking at an almost full moon and contemplating what our luck would be that night.Well around 10 pm the 16/0 takes off in a constant steady pull without a bit of hesitation that indicated that the shark on the other end was big enough to swallow the 15 lb slab in one bite.In other words right away i knew i had a big shark on.After setting up i instantly felt the power of a big shark pulling drag and bending my 10 foot gator glass rod.My friends were busy putting on there gloves,getting the tail rope ready, video taping and everyone was commenting on the power of this shark.After putting on my shoulder harness and sitting down on the sand to do battle the strain was so great that the harness clips kept bending and coming off the reel.The shark would take 100 yards and i would retrieve 75 this went on for 45 minutes all the while the beast was heading north and i was having to fight him facing almost completely north on the beach,,,,,,i was't going to chase him and end up a quarter mile north of our base camp.We finaly got him in the wash tail roped him,snapped the pics and quickly released the pregnant female back into the water,she was 8 ft 8 inch and over 400 lbs.