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Pensioner lands 'monster' on rod and line

B Gordon Deegan
Friday, 19 June 2009

Joe Waldis (70) with his record catch

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Biggest fish ever caught off British Isles - but should it have been thrown back?

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It's a twist on the Hemingway classic ‘The Old Man and the Sea'. A pensioner has landed the largest ever fish caught on a rod and line in Irish and British waters off the Co Clare coast.

Ernest Hemingway's 1952 novella tells the story of an ageing Cuban fisherman who spends days landing a giant marlin after an epic battle.

Swiss man Joe Waldis (70) yesterday described his own feat as “the fight of my life” after landing a sixgill shark weighing 480kg. The shark’s liver alone weighed 143kg.

“I still can't believe it. When I go to sleep at night, I still can't believe it. It was the fight of my life.”

More accustomed to fishing for pollock, Mr Waldis described the 12ft 9in shark as “a monster”.

Mr Waldis said that for 35 minutes he had been struggling with the shark, which first got hooked on his line with mackerel bait 60m below in a stretch of sea north of Loop Head on |Tuesday afternoon.

Mr Waldis said: “I didn't know what I was dealing with until the shark came to the surface. It is like getting all your numbers in the Lotto to get a fish like this.

“I could be going to the same place a hundred times and never land a fish like this. Other fishermen can only dream of this.”

Owner of the Clare Dragoon charter boat, Luke Aston, of the Carrigaholt Sea Angling Centre, said: “It's unbelievable. We knew that Joe had hooked on to something big and we strapped him in and the fight was on.”

The shark was too big to haul up into the boat and it was towed by the Clare Dragoon into Carrigaholt.

It then had to be transported by forklift to a local quarry to be weighed on the quarry's weighbridge.

He said: “It came in at 480 kilos or 1,056 lbs — the biggest ever fish caught by a rod and line in the British Isles. Joe is a very fit 70-year-old. The previous record was for a blue fin tuna that weighed 999lbs.”

Mr Aston said his boat caught a similar size sixgill shark last year, but it was was returned to the ocean.

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31 Comments

From Italy: I'm watching the photo, and I see that the shark HASN'T the dorsal fin... it should be big... isn't it strange ? what kind of shark is ? If it's real...

Posted by Fabio | 22.06.09, 10:41 GMT

ive fished for shark for twenty years and returned every one of these fantastic creatures. luke aston should be ashamed of himself as skipper for not releasing the fish.

Posted by lin68 | 22.06.09, 10:01 GMT

Vic,

Surely you meant, " It should be pollack - not pollock - you pillock "

Colum Hughes.

Posted by colum hughes | 22.06.09, 07:12 GMT

these sharks are an endangered species and it should not have been killed.

Posted by sean | 21.06.09, 09:13 GMT

Hi,
A great story but thoroughly spoiled by the fact that your correspondent nor your sub editors can't spell.
It should be pollack - not pollock!!!
Vic Thomas - Angling Correspondent Sunday Life.

Posted by Vic Thomas | 20.06.09, 20:50 GMT

Slaughtered, and thrown out with the rubbish, what a waste. How much better would it have been to see such a magnificent creature swim back to the depths. Just seeing such a fish alongside should be reward enough.

Posted by Mike | 20.06.09, 09:35 GMT

Sixgill sharks have the widest distribution of all sharks, except for possibly the great white. They are found all over the world in temperate and tropical regions, where they have been known to dive as deep as 6,000 feet (over 1,800 meters). They are more typically found at depths of about 300 feet (90 meters). These sharks have been observed moving into water as shallow as 100 feet (30 meters) during parts of the year in some locations. It is not yet known why they do this. Since they do venture into shall water, fishermen are killing them for sport and food. Because of their low reproductive rate, they can easily be overfished. This has achieved them a near-threatened status on the global list of endangered species. But because we know so little about their populations, many scientists believe they could be in even more danger of extinction.

Posted by Brian Mills | 19.06.09, 23:48 GMT

After achieving such a gallant battle with the shark I would have thought more highly of Mr. Deegan had he shown compassion to his victim by releasing it back into it's rightful home place. i.e. The Sea.

Posted by Ben Forde | 19.06.09, 17:26 GMT

What a tiddler- He should have used it for bait!

Posted by neill | 19.06.09, 16:07 GMT

Its a FISH, people, not a person....get over it! Well done Joe.

Posted by Jack | 19.06.09, 16:06 GMT

You would think with all the fish shortages that he would throw the poor thing back .... ah well.

Posted by Canute | 19.06.09, 15:17 GMT

D

Fantastic comments! Can only imagine that you posted it to get a reaction and you are not condoning the needless death of a rarely seen animal over the sake of a pointless recond and the obscure point that it would have had someones leg off. By that logic lets go out and kill the worlds largests tiger/ lion/ croc etc just because they have the phisiology to bite us

Posted by neill | 19.06.09, 14:46 GMT

Mr D - Comment. Win against nature. Where are we in the wilds.? Its not survival my friend, fishing is a sport. Wise up. Why put in a comment, you said you dont care anyway. I would expect some one with your comments to use google, perhaps the more educated know about the shark and din't have to google. Why would you want to mount an imaginery Fawn on your Fireplace, although you were puting it in the FIRE Saddo...!!!!CLown

Posted by Gazz | 19.06.09, 14:37 GMT

Mr Waldis should be thoroughly ashamed of needlessly taking the life of this fine creature-any decent fisherman would have tried to release it unharmed,instead Mr Waldis is proud to not only kill the creature but parade his vile deed to the world.

Posted by Bill | 19.06.09, 13:25 GMT

Posted by Bill | 19.06.09, 13:22 GMT

WHAT A CATCH! good man yourself, maybe it could have gone back into the water but you can't prove a record without taking it back and weighing it. This 70 year old man won against nature its not like he shot bamby and mounted it on his fire.

will all you bearded lefty types stop crying about this shark - which lets face it would probably have your leg off anyway (cue some saddo taking the time to google it and discover its actually vegitarian - i don't really care either way.)

Posted by D | 19.06.09, 13:15 GMT

Pity it didn't pull him overboard.

Posted by Tom | 19.06.09, 13:13 GMT

A photo should be sufficent ! Let the poor beast live :-(
Someone could catch it again next year when it could of grown some more. This system of killing great creatures just to get a wee badge and a piece of paper saying your the best puts sea angling in a very poor light ! There are systems used throughout the world where measurements are taken then the fish is tagged and released.
WHY ???? :-(

Posted by D White | 19.06.09, 13:03 GMT

Disgracefull !

If I tortured any land based animal for 35 minutes, suffocated it for sport, and then paraded myself in front of cameras and gave my story to the press, I'd be brought before the courts and recieved a heavy fine. This is not to mention the grief the press would give me.

Posted by GDW | 19.06.09, 12:47 GMT