A group of fishermen off the coast of Amelia Island managed to briefly hook a 14-foot great white shark after it tried to steal one of their fish.
Captain Tony Peeples of Southern Style Charters was fishing with a party of four in about 60 feet of water off of Fernandina Beach when one of his customers was reeling in a large drum. The shark emerged from beneath the boat and swiped the hooked fish, and became hooked itself.
“The guy that had him on the rod … the look on his face when he seen a great white shark, it was just like awe,” Peeples told WJAX-TV. “His eyes were all lit up.”
The light fishing tackle was no match for the large great white shark, which broke the line with ease and swam away, but not before the Peeples was able to get some dramatic footage which he posted to the company’s Facebook page.
“It kind of a humbling experience when you see something that big three feet from you,” he said.
White sharks commonly migrate to the warmer waters of Florida during winter months but it is rare to find them locally at this point in the year.
