- Thresher shark caught in waters off the Isle of Wight
- Fishermen battle for two hours to reel in record-breaking animal
- Shark measured 14ft and 2ft 6ins and weighed around 550lbs.
If anyone was gonna need a bigger boat, it was Wayne Comben.
The 46-year-old fisherman battled for two hours to reel in one of the biggest sharks ever caught in British waters as it dragged his 17ft dinghy out to sea.
Mr Comben, along with fellow angler Graeme Pullen, caught the vast thresher shark about a mile south of St Catherine’s Point on the Isle of Wight.
Jaws: The 14ft thresher shark grabbed hold of Wayne Comben's fishing rod and dragged his Wilson Flyer boat four miles out to sea
The two men realised their incredible catch and tried to haul it on board - but ended up being dragged four miles out into the English Channel.
Mr Comben, from Hook in Hampshire, and Mr Pullen, a water engineer from Havant had been fishing on Mr Comben's boat Taryn.
Mr Pullen, 61, said: 'We went out looking for a thresher shark thinking we would be lucky to get one at all.
'We placed a chum bait in the water and then after two hours there was a screaming from Wayne’s reel.
'It was too dangerous to anchor the boat otherwise it could have capsized. The shark towed us about four miles to the south east and into the shipping lanes.
Heave-ho: Mr Comben hangs on as the shark tows his 17ft craft out to sea
Hook, line and sinker: The fishermen heard a 'screaming' sound from Mr Comben's reel and realised they'd caught a whopper
Once bitten: The thresher shark jumped out of the water three times while the men were trying to reel it in
'It took two hours to reel it towards the boat and in that time it jumped out of the water three times. It looked huge.
'Wayne was very tired by the end and had blisters on his thumbs.
'We brought it alongside the boat. When I held onto the steel trace on the line I nearly got dragged in.'
After measuring its length and width at 14ft and 2ft 6ins, they were able to calculate its approximate weight at around 550lbs.
In order for the thresher shark to be officially claimed as a record the pair would have had to have killed it and weighed it on land.
Mr Comben said: 'We reckon it weighed about 550lbs, far in excess of the current British record.
'But there was no way we were going to kill such a superb specimen just to have a name on a piece of paper.'
Mr Comben managed to take film footage of the shark being caught to back up their record claim.
Record: The men measured the shark at 14ft in length and 2ft 6in across, and calculated its weight at 550lbs
Visitor: Threshers are rare in the UK and tend to only come in summer months
This was the biggest thresher shark ever caught in the UK by rod and line, beating the previous record of 350lbs for a specimen off Looe, Cornwall, in August 2012.
And it rivals the weight of the biggest shark hooked in our waters - a huge porbeagle that the same pair caught last year off Boscastle, Cornwall.
The only catch to come close to their achievement in recent months was a 235lb specimen - also a porbeagle - caught from a fishing boat in Milford Haven, Wales, in July this year.
Thresher sharks - known for their long tails and ability to leap out of the water - rarely come to the UK and are usually found in the warmer mid-Atlantic.
But it is said that more of them are being attracted here in the summer months due to climate change.
Thresher sharks are largely harmless to humans, although they can cause serious injury with their thrashing tails that they use to stun prey in the sea.
Fisherman's friend: The men filmed their catch before releasing it, as they didn't want to kill the incredible shark
Gentle giant: Thresher sharks are harmless to humans... unless you get on the wrong end of a powerful blow from their tail
But there have been reports of more dangerous sharks entering UK waters in recent months as waters warm up.
Last week, Cornish fishermen reported finding bite marks on catches of smaller blue sharks that suggested the animals had been attacked by powerful great white sharks, as waters in Cornwall reach temperatures of 21C - as warm as the animals' South African hunting grounds.
Darren Gook, a shark expert with the Sea Life Centre network, said: 'This is certainly a big shark.
'Threshers are rare summer visitors to British waters, and rarely seen unless they happen to get caught by fishermen.
'They are beautiful animals, completely harmless to man, and I am delighted that this one was released safely.
'That tail can deliver a really powerful blow, so these fishermen may also have avoided potentially serious injury by letting this one go on its way.'
The biggest thresher shark caught in the world on rod and line is one that weighed 767lbs off New Zealand in 1983.
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