Anglers Land Big Fish Tale, Jaws To Prove It

Frank Maloney kept the jaws of the 8-foot bull shark that eight men helped hoist into his back yard in Venetian Isles on Sunday. Its body became shark bait.

News Channel 8 photo by WALLY PATANOW

By STEPHEN THOMPSON The Tampa Tribune

Published: Jun 5, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG - Frank Maloney has had some experience catching sharks. Last year, he and his friends hooked 14 of them from the dock at his waterfront home in Venetian Isles.

The fish typically weigh 200 to 300 pounds, the real estate developer said.

One nabbed over the weekend weighed significantly more.

The 8-foot, 10-inch bull shark was so strong it took Maloney and two other men more than three hours to reel it in, he said.

The adventure began normally enough.

Two fishing poles, their baited lines cast into the water, were left on their sides on the dock outside Maloney's home at 1998 Carolina Circle at 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Maloney said.

At 9:45 p.m., something in the water started taking one of the lines out into Old Tampa Bay.

The whir of the reel was so loud it woke up Maloney's wife, he said. Three hundred and twenty yards of a 400-yard line disappeared into the dark water.

Maloney's cousin, Ed Maloney, a novice angler visiting from New York, grabbed the pole with its 80-pound-test line and plunked himself down in a fishing chair equipped with a rod holder, Frank Maloney said.

"He's sitting in the chair and he can't crank the reel," Maloney, 45, said. "I thought it was because he was a rookie, then I sit down and I have the same problem."

The two men took turns trying to bring in the catch, with each of them sitting in the chair for 20-minute intervals.

Then a neighbor was enlisted to join the 20-minute rotation, Frank Maloney said.

It took 1 1/2 hours for the trio to get what appeared to be a large shark to Maloney's seawall.

An attempt to hook its tail failed; a flashlight beam spooked the animal and it bolted, Frank Maloney said.

This time the shark took 200 yards of line out into the water.

By 1 a.m. Sunday the shark had been pulled back to the seawall, but it had died during the struggle, Maloney said.

Maloney and his cohorts tied the bull shark to the dock until daybreak.

It took eight men with ropes to hoist the fish ashore, Maloney said.

Neighbors accustomed to swimming off their own docks thanked the men for removing what they thought was a menace.

Maloney said the shark wasn't weighed, but he estimated it was 550 to 650 pounds. He didn't know its gender.

Maloney removed the shark's jaws for a keepsake. On Sunday night he and the others lowered its body into the bay.

Two smaller sharks later were seen circling the carcass, he said.

"We don't like killing these things," Maloney said. "At least it's food returned to the sea. At least his friends will benefit."

News Channel 8 Reporter Rod Challenger contributed to this report. Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at spthompson@tampatrib.comor

(727) 823-3303.