the Cherry Grove pier
Budget Tigers
Tiger Shark. Not every heavyweight record requires big bucks, or big boats. Walter Maxwell managed the tiger shark record without a boat, fighting chair, skipper or other help. He caught his fish off a Carolina pier. He remembers the one that got away best. "The big one nearly overlapped the pier's end," he said. "That's 20 feet long." "The little one I caught only went 13 1/2 feet and, after losing an estimated 10 percent of its body weight, weighed in at 1,780 pounds.
While this record may be broken, it won't be broken from a Carolina pier. After jaws, shore communities barred pier fishing for sharks on the theory it wouldn't help tourism.
Back in 1964, Maxwell, a very fit bricklayer, noted, "Shark fishing was big. We could see stripes on tiger sharks that cruised off the piers. I thought I knew why more fish weren't caught. Fishermen didn't have the right kind of gear."
Maxwell geared up with a 16/0 left-handed Penn Senator purchased at a bargain $135. With a custom rod, 1,300 yards of 130 pound test on the reel and a five pound skate bait on 14/0 Mustad hooks whipped onto a bit less than 30 feet of steel cable, he was ready.
After losing a huge shark on Saturday when it swam away with his pier gaff cutting a periscope wake, Maxwell changed his approach. A couple of 10 foot fish hit on other lines. Then, in the confusion, Maxwell missed his hit. When he looked up the rod tip was down. As he ran to the rail in the confusion of crossed lines and cursing fishermen his fish surged out of the water. As Maxwell remembers, "My tiger rolled again about 200 yards from the pier. It sounded like nothing I'd ever heard." A buddy later reported it looked and sounded like "someone had dumped two bathtubs into the ocean at once."
Maxwell's shark headed down the beach toward Florida. With over one half a mile of line out, Maxwell finally stopped the fish. Line built on the reel, then smoked off. The problem was leverage; Maxwell needed to get down on the beach. After four hours and a half, the big shark rolled under the pier. One hook was bitten off; the other barely held at the corner of the shark's mouth just off it's gnashing teeth.
The wire leader came into reach, but even Andre the Giant couldn't wire a shark from a 20 foot high pier. So Maxwell managed to place his gaff in the shark's mouth. The gaff handle tore free, but the inch-thick gaff line held. Maxwell jumped down to the soft sand, hauled his catch into the shore break and lassoed the shark's head and tail. It took nearly a dozen men on three ropes to strand the huge fish above the surf. The fish lost pounds in the long wait for the wrecker's truck arrival. It still beat the old record by 350 pounds. Fisheries experts agree that, if weighed when caught, it would have topped a ton.