For a few years, AJ Rotondella, proprietor of Apex Anglers—a land-based shark fishing information service—has been attempting to catch a thresher shark within the New Jersey surf. On June third, after 10 years of guiding anglers to unbelievable fishing experiences throughout the state, he acquired a style of the joy that every of his new purchasers really feel once they come tight to a shark for the primary time.
After deciding to take the break day from guiding, Rotondella’s cousins, who’ve needed to go shark fishing with him for years, determined to hitch him and his mates, Mark Jones and Chef Dan, for a night on the seashore. Little did anybody know they had been in for the expertise of a lifetime.
Rotondella hit the sand within the early night as bathers started to depart the seashore. As a shark fishing information, his primary aim is to be as respectful as potential to swimmers and different beachgoers. “They’ve the best of method, so we won’t put baits within the water till it’s utterly freed from swimmers,” stated Rotondella. By rule of thumb, he usually gained’t even go to the seashore till the lifeguards have left for the day. “Even as soon as the lifeguards are gone, folks will keep within the water, so we regularly simply sit there with all of our gear and wait till they’re completed swimming,” Rotondella continued.
With the seashore away from swimmers and bathers, he arrange store on a stretch of shoreline that has constantly produced on guided journeys in years previous. Rotondella famous the shortage of bait within the space, however primarily based on his expertise, bait presence has not performed a significant function in how good or dangerous the fishing will likely be. Bunker faculties are nearly all the time a promising signal, however on today, he opted to drop a 10-pound bluefish round 350 yards from the seashore utilizing his drone, which is authorized in New Jersey. Nonetheless, in New York, using drones to deploy baits for leisure shark fishing from shore, in addition to paddling baits from the seashore, was not too long ago prohibited by the New York State Division of Environmental Conservation.
After catching a few sand tigers, Rotondella lower 2 to three kilos off the tail finish of the gator blue and deployed it with the drone round 6:45 p.m. “I made a decision to make use of an enormous bait as a result of throughout this week in June for the previous 2 years, we both hooked or landed a bull shark on guided journeys,” he stated. The primary time, on June twelfth, 2022, an Apex shopper battled a shark that fought otherwise than something Rotondella had battled within the Jersey surf earlier than, however it broke free. Then, in 2023, in the identical space, Rotondella and his purchasers hooked and landed a bull shark that fought identically to the fish they misplaced only one yr and 6 days prior. “I set out this jumbo bluefish bait in an effort to repeat historical past and to attempt to construct some type of bull shark sample,” stated Rotondella.
Round 7:30 p.m., simply 45 minutes after placing out the bluefish, line began peeling off of Rotondella’s Avet TRX 80W. “The rod went down and this fish took the bait a lot quicker than the standard suspects,” he chuckled. The reel is spooled with 200-pound-test Diamond Era 3 hole core braid with 150 yards of 250-pound-test Lindgren-Pitman high shot and a 50-foot, 1,200-pound-test monofilament chief. “It’s overkill, however it handles absolutely anything we will catch on the seashore. We’re on the market each evening of the summer season searching for the largest of the large, so we have now to be ready.”
Rotondella’s household watched in amazement as the road ripped out. “I checked out my cousins and their youngsters and stated: ‘Pay attention, I do know you guys wish to catch a shark, however this isn’t a traditional species.’ Because it seems, they only needed to see a shark, in order that they let me struggle it,” Rotondella stated. He picked up the rod, harnessed in, and settled in for the battle. “I got here tight to the fish, then it instantly went slack, then I got here tight once more, after which there was tons of slack. It needed to be over a minute of reeling as quick as potential earlier than I used to be tight to the fish for a 3rd time,” he continued. “Fortunately I put the brakes on him early, as a result of the fish then pulled 55-pounds of drag for 30 seconds straight. That’s once we noticed a splash about 300 yards out.”
Everybody was shouting “It jumped! It jumped!”, and started speculating what it might be. Primarily based on the scale of the bait and the pace of the fish, Rotondella thought it was a “unicorn”—his time period for a rogue inshore mako shark, which stays on his bucket checklist of Jersey shark species. Then, the road went completely slack once more because the fish rushed the seashore, however it had stopped taking drag, and the struggle settled in to a pump-and-reel battle. Because it approached the shore, the fish ran up the seashore earlier than making a pointy U-turn and dashing again south. That’s when Rotondella noticed the unmistakable tail of a giant thresher shark, and the entire group misplaced their minds, which might be seen and heard within the video he shared to the Apex Anglers Instagram web page. “Regardless of the fish’s quick maneuvers and taking some line, the entire struggle lasted about quarter-hour at most,” stated Rotondella.
As soon as they acquired it within the wash, Rotondella put the harness on the sand spike and grabbed the chief. His mates, Mark Jones and Chef Dan, assisted him in dealing with the fish as he eliminated the 24/0 circle hook from the nook of the shark’s mouth. With the hook safely eliminated and the shark again within the water, Rotondella had formally checked a New Jersey shore-caught grownup thresher shark off his bucket checklist.
They didn’t measure the fish, however Rotondella stated that his wingspan, which is round 6 toes, was lower than the space from the shark’s nostril to the bottom of the tail. “I’m undecided how large it was, however together with the tail size, I’d conservatively estimate it to be round 12 toes lengthy,” he continued. “From what I’ve learn, they are saying the tail size of a thresher shark is roughly the identical size as its physique.”
Rotondella famous the irony of the catch, as a result of for years, he has unsuccessfully tried to land a thresher, and the one time he’s not on a guided journey making the hassle, it occurs. “Essentially the most stunning a part of all of it, is that this catch went towards every part I’ve beforehand tried in pursuit of threshers; it seems like an entire fluke,” stated the decade-long shark fishing information. Previously, he has usually fished with bunker beneath a float, however because it seems, a heavy, XL bluefish on backside did the trick. He additionally famous that upon his return to the seashore the following day, there have been faculties of bunker in every single place. He suspects they had been the explanation the thresher got here in so shut, regardless that there have been no seen indicators of bait on the seashore the evening earlier than. “I feel the bunker faculties had been hanging low on the evening we caught it,” he stated, “it is sensible that the thresher was chasing bunker near backside when it got here throughout our bluefish and thought: why not?”
Touchdown and releasing any 12-foot-long shark, whatever the species, isn’t any straightforward feat. However when requested about what made this catch so particular to him, Rotondella replied: “So far as I do know, it’s the one grownup thresher ever caught by a land-based fishermen on the east coast. At this level in my profession, being so immersed within the shark fishing scene, I really feel like I’d know if one other one had been caught.”
And so as to add to the fishing expertise of a lifetime, he was in a position to do all of it with household by his aspect. “What a day for my household to point out up in any case these years!” Rotondella laughed. “That’s why you’ve acquired to go and simply put your time in, since you by no means know when one thing superb may occur.”
With an grownup thresher from shore now below his belt, Rotondella’s subsequent aim is both a Jersey blue shark, or that unicorn mako he’s been after for years.
To e-book a visit with AJ Rotondella and Apex Anglers, go to apexanglers.com.
