Meet the UK angler addicted to catching big sharks
UK shark hunter Andy Griffith’s amazing trio gets global recognition A
S WE celebrate one of the best-ever starts to the UK shark fishing season, Angling Times meets the record-breaking angler who’s landed a 200lb-plus porbeagle off the Welsh coast and entered the history books!
Andy Griffith has been awarded the ‘Shark Grand Slam Certificate’ from the International Game Fish Association after becoming the only angler to catch three species of shark in a single day – mako, porbeagle and blue.
Angling Times caught up with the adrenaline junkie from Kent to find out what drives his obsession...
Q: When did you first start fishing for sharks and when did you first think about fishing for them? I’d been fascinated by sharks as a child and as I grew up and started boat fishing I knew that one day I would aim to catch one of these apex predators. As a teenager I watched Jaws, and the rest is pretty much history. I didn’t start fishing for them until 2004, and it wasn’t until 2007 that I began to take them seriously when I started fishing aboard Andrew Alsop’s White Water Charters. He’s the best shark skipper in the UK.
Q: Which is the hardest shark to catch? Without doubt the hardest shark to catch is the mako – often referred to as ‘The Holy Grail’ of UK sea angling. It’s the only shark to be described as a game fish, and they are renowned for their acrobatics and being the fastest shark in the world. They are now extremely rare in the UK. My mako back in 2013 was the only reported rod and line-caught fish of its kind for 42 years. It really is the one to get if you are into your shark angling, and anglers will travel the world to bag one. Q: What’s your favourite species? The porbeagle. Hard dirty fighter, aggressive, top of the food chain and it looks like a proper shark.
Q: How many miles do you travel to go shark fishing? What kind of costs do you incur for each trip? When I head off to Wales it’s a 660-mile round trip taking around six hours each way. I charter the whole boat for myself so it is expensive, but this way I guarantee 100 per cent of the sharks caught and released that day are mine. This is a very effective way to bag the true specimens.
Q: How many trips have you made and where have your shark fishing destinations been in the UK and worldwide? I have fished with Andrew for a decade now and tend to book up 12 shark trips each year. Missing out on half the trips that were cancelled because of bad weather, I have probably fished about 60 times from Milford Haven, in Wales. In May of this year I headed over to Ireland to fish for six gilled sharks. Catching and releasing three in two days was amazing. The estimated weights were 600lb, 1,150lb and 1,400lb. I am now the only angler to have caught and released four different shark species over 100lb in the British Isles. I have also visited Florida to target lemon, tiger and hammerhead sharks.
Q: Is shark fishing becoming more popular and will others ever achieve what you have? Shark fishing is at its most popular for many years, numbers of sharks visiting have recovered well and by applying a catch and release ethic it is a sustainable sport and accessible to pretty much anyone. It is extremely unlikely that anyone will ever achieve an IGFA Shark Grand Slam again here in the UK. Considering that this achievement was the first ever registered worldwide will give you some idea of the difficulty involved in doing it.
Q: What is your most memorable shark fishing trip, and why? This has to be the Shark Grand Slam Day on July 18, 2013. It is such a significant angling achievement, not just for the UK but worldwide too. The highlight
for me was when a 194lb shortfin mako jumped 15ft-20ft in the air, cartwheeling twice to the left and crashing back into the sea with the echo of Andrew Alsop shouting ‘MAKO’ in my ears!!
Q: What is your most memorable catch? In terms of shark fishing, again it has to be the mako, purely because of what it represented on an individual basis. The fish was an instant Welsh Record, the first in the UK for 42 years, and it formed part of the IGFA Shark Grand Slam. I also caught the first lure-targeted bluefin tuna in the UK last year, which is another memorable milestone for me.
Q: Do you do any other type of fishing? Yes, I pretty much like all sea angling from the shore and boats. I target the various rays, bull huss, congers, smoothhounds, cod and common skate to name a few.
Q: So what next? Like Andrew Alsop has always told me: ‘Just go fishing – you never know what might turn up next!”
“The porbeagle is a hard dirty fighter, top of the food chain, and it looks like a proper shark”