Rene de Dios's 14 hour fight with a Great White

My friend Rene de Dios (rest in peace)in 1994 fought a great white shark off the coast of Bimini for 14 hours.Rene and two friends were anchored up on the ledges of north Bimini a place where the water drops from 120ft to over 450ft in less then a block fishing for sharks using a wing of a stingray on his trusty old 14/0 and Harnell boat rod.At 4:30 in the afternoon he hooked something that nearly dumped his 14/0 on the first run;they dropped the anchor line on a bouy and went after the enormous monster that kept swimming away from the island into deeper water.For hours and hours Rene battles with the shark he gains 20 yards,the shark takes 30 yards.Captain Luis Valdes tries the funnel which is a technique of steering the boat in a circle in the direction the fish is swimming to gain line and bring the fish up and within gaffing range. The battle goes on the reel is heating up and the crew pours water on it to keep it from locking up.By 1am the captain and crew are desperate to see the fish and get back to Bimini ;by this time the island is out of sight and every hour that passes the shark is dragging them further and further away offshore but there's only so much Rene can do with a beast of this size since he's only 145lbs soaking wet and diabetic to boot.At about 2am the monster starts to fight on the surface and they see a huge fin getting bigger and bigger as it gets closer and closer to the boat.Rene reels the behemoth within 20 feet of the boat and he is in heaven-his dream of catching a great white are gonna come true after all he thinks to himself.
Captain Luis is astonished but worried that the shark at an estimated 18 ft
is to massive to gaff,cleat off and tow back to Bimini.James the other guy on the boat is scared sh**less and wants Rene to cut the line but anyone who knew Rene knows he lived his entire life for this moment and to cut
his line is to put your life in danger at this moment Rene in a trance his
dream shark materializing before his eyes.The shark sees the boat and dives and for a second time the reel is almost spooled of Ande 125lb test.The battle rages on and by 4am the captain and crew are exhausted
and lay down to sleep.At about 6:30am the captain wakes up and goes to the stern where he notices that there is water up to the floor level and he wants to know why the water is in the boat but Rene meanwhile had not even noticed it. The bilge pump flap is broken and the boat has been slowly taking on water and sinking.James wakes up and goes to the stern of the boat all the weight on the stern and the boat full of water below the floor caused the boat to suddenly stand on end flip throwing the three scared fisherman into the water.Rene has lost the battle with his world record sized Great White,now the battle is to survive on a capsized boat in the middle of the Atlantic.This story was told to me by my dear friend and mentor Rene de Dios with very few details left out.I know Rene is catching his monster sharks somewhere in shark heaven.Here is the newspaper write up from the Miami Herald dated August 20,1994

RENE'S STORY -in his own words

Here's the story that came out in the Florida Today written by Dennis Thomas jr about Rene's mishap on the high seas.he hooked the biggest shark of his life and it almost cost him his life.