A fisherman in Miami Beach might have caught Florida’s biggest bull shark
A man from Bradenton might have caught the largest bull shark in Florida, and he did it while standing on the beach.
Michael Hengel, 22, a land-based shark fisherman, was on a fishing trip on Feb. 12 when he caught a huge female bull shark while standing in the North Beach secton of Miami Beach.
He first paddled 400 yards out in his kayak and dropped a 20-pound bait of bonita.
“It was right after sunset. Rods started going off, and I set the hook and fought her for about an hour,” Hengel said. “As soon as I got her in on the beach, I realized this was a monster.”
The shark measured 9 1⁄2 feet long, 55 inches in girth, and weighed 550-600 pounds. The state record for a bull shark is 517 pounds.
“I knew this shark had to be well over the record,” he said. “I can dead-lift 500 pounds, but I could not move it.”
Two beachgoers helped Hengel pull the shark to shore.
Within a minute, he removed his hook from the shark, took a few photos, and dragged the shark back to the water.
He has declared his catch to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission. It will be some time before he knows if he broke the unofficial catch-and-release record.
The weight of the shark is determined by calculations from the shark’s length and girth.
For Hengel to be considered for the official record, he would’ve had to kill the shark and bring it in to be weighed. He decided not to kill the animal because sharks play a key role in the ocean’s ecosystem.
“Sharks being at the top of the food chain makes them the most import species to keep alive,” he said. “If you remove sharks, then the bigger fish become overpopulated they eat all the smaller fish. And then there’s no smaller fish and everything just gets messed up.”
LAND-BASED FISHING
Hengel said he became interested in land-based or shore-based fishing when he was 13 years old while on a family trip to Sanibel Island, where he saw someone catch a shark. He has been hooked ever since.
He prefers land-based fishing over deep-sea fishing because he gets seasick, however, he enjoys the excitement of catching a shark on land rather than in a boat.
“I just love it,” he said. “The difference between fighting a shark off the beach versus fighting a shark on a boat is you can’t move. With the boat, you can follow it around when it’s pulling you, but on the beach, it’s you versus the shark.”
To fish from the beach, he attaches over 2,000 yards of line, paddles 300 yards offshore in a kayak,
and drops his line while his rod is on a stand in a large rod holder, allowing the reel to elevate above the water.
Hengel said he learned how to land-based shark fish by watching YouTube videos.
“I spent months getting all my gear ready,” he said. “I’m making sure I have the strongest line and all my leaders are perfect. I take hours and hours to fish for the right bait.”
Hengel said the most important part is having the right tools to remove the hook. He has three tools to do that.
“If the hook gets too deep, I have really strong heavy-duty pliers for getting the hook out because if you don’t get it out fast enough, the shark can die,” he said.