Florida Angler and shark outfitter Blaine Kenny was staked out on a beach between Destin and Pensacola last Wednesday when something huge took hold of the yellowfin tuna head he was using for bait. After an hour-long fight, he hauled the monster on the end of his line—a massive great white shark—into the shallow surf. According to a video that Kenny and his fishing partner Dylan Wier later posted to Youtube, the shark weighed an astonishing 1,200 pounds and measured more than 14-feet in length.
Kenny and Wier set up on Santa Rosa Island’s Navarre Beach late at night on Tuesday, Jan. 30, they said in their video documenting the outing. They used kayaks to drop their baits far from the beach. Kenny’s line was rigged with the head of an 80-pound tuna, while Weir’s rod was baited with the head of a swordfish he’d caught during a recent off-shore trip. It was around 8 a.m. the next morning when the white shark engulfed Kenny’s tuna head and his drag started screaming.
The video shows Kenny fighting the enormous shark from the beach, wearing a waist harness and a fighting plate for added support. Suddenly, Kenny points the surf and starts yelling. “He just jumped!” the angler says. “Full breach. Not a thrash. Full breach!”