Hey! Its TRUE! OK, going straight from memory here, not using the Googly masheen, heres what I know about Large Carchardon Carcarias captures...
In the early 60's or late 50's the World Record Rod&Reel White Shark was caught off of Ceduna Australia by a guy named Alfred Dean...it weighed 2664 lbs...
Then, In the late 70's I think, right after the Jaws Mania, some guy off the East Coast named Capt Frank something or another, caught a larger one and broke the record!...I cant remember what that one weighed....
But YES! Theres massive GW's swimming around in Lake Michigan! Of course, the local beach towns do NOT want to make this public knowledge, since their entire income is based on tourism from a short 3 month season...Thats why a lot of times, when somebody is lost in Lake Michigan, they are never found. Those Big sharks just swallow a person whole!
They dont have the time to diddle around with an exploratory bite like their pelagic brethren! 3 month season like I said! They gotta gobble up as many Humans as fast as possible to make it through the year! We dont have seals for them to eat, just nice soft fat greasy Humans!
Although they have come up to my boat and snip off a salmon right at the point of landing it...My Boat is 20' long, about 6' wide, and a few of those sharks were every bit as big! Nobody believes me of course...Why would they? Running around barefoot offshore with no electronics in a homemade plywood boat? Obviously insane to some degree...
Theres all sorts of what are considered 'Salt water' fish up in here...gobies, lampreys, salmon, alewives, so sure, why not Sharks!
I would guess this article you posted about is a fake though, just on account of nobody here uses gear heavy enough to land a creature of that magnitude..Hell, you see reels explode and rods shred on a mid sized salmon!
You would need the kind of gear those Bluefin guys use! Including the harpoons! But except for setting down little baitfish, you would need to be using a big fat stupid Kid of some sort! Sure, they are all around here in abundance, easy to catch so that would be no problem, its just that if you take a 1/2 dozen out for a days worth of fishing bait, once you get offshore a few miles, and rig one up and over the side, waiting for a bite, settle back in and have a smoke, you gotta listen to the rest of them whine and moan about the lack of free Wifi!..
Plus, to be in Coast Guard Compliance, you need a lifejacket for EACH of them when you leave the dock! On the way back in, all those empty lifejackets be blowing around all over the place!..Knocking over your beer and stuff...Its just another minor detail to be aware of for a Lake Michigan Shark Fisherman...
I used to read a lot about sharks as you can see...so I know what I'm talking about! Scubadee dont! In fact, I would imagine that Scubadee has been snuck up on a time or two by a GW as he was geezling along in the mud looking for bottles in the Detroit River...So far, the sharks have given him a pass, possibly out of a notion of Familial Respect?
