A young Florida man has told how he caught a giant tiger shark measuring over 13 feet long and later swam with the predator in the middle of the night.
Mason Carson went fishing with some friends off the coast of Sarasota County and caught a sharp-toothed shark.
“Normally we get a lot of bull sharks, a lot of blacktip sharks. In the winter we get a lot of sandbar sharks, and occasionally we get tiger sharks and hammerheads — but usually not tigers of this size,” he said.
“It was definitely a surprise. We had quite a few rods and reels out at the time, and the rod I caught the tiger shark on was actually (for) smaller fish and smaller sharks.
“I had put out smaller baits and it just so happened that the smallest reel and the smallest bait got picked up,” he said. ClickOrlando.
Mason Carson went fishing with some friends off the coast of Sarasota County, where he caught a huge tiger shark, over 13 feet long. He later swam with the predator in the middle of the night.
A video shared by the fisherman shows him brazenly standing on the predator’s head and repeatedly trying to open its jaw with both hands.
Carson later told the publication that he and his buddies released the shark back into the water after taking several photos of the shark.
But instead of letting the fish swim away on its own, the young Florida man jumped into the ocean with it and began paddling.
In another video Carson shared, the daredevil can be seen holding on to the tiger shark’s fin as he wades through the water.
A video shared by the fisherman showed him brazenly standing on the predator’s head and repeatedly trying to open its jaw with both hands
In another video Carson shared, the daredevil can be seen holding onto the tiger shark’s fin as he wades through the water.
In the past, the fisherman has managed to reel in a bull shark measuring approximately 2.7 metres in length, but this was the first time he caught a tiger shark.
He also told the Florida newspaper that he only shared his unique success story because of a bet he made with a friend.
‘I made a bet in the parking lot of Wawa with a buddy. He bet me $100 that I wouldn’t be in the news with my tiger shark.
“He was scrolling through Instagram and saw a guy with a sawfish on the news. He bet me $100 that I wouldn’t be in the news because of my tiger shark.”