Fishermen catch great white shark off Fort Lauderdale

Teens later release shark

FORT LAUDERRDALE, Fla. – Three teenagers from Atlanta caught a 12-foot, 1,000 pound great white shark during a fishing trip about two miles from Port Everglades Tuesday.

"We actually saw it at the top of the water," said Josh Shailer.

"We were catching good fish throughout the start, and then all the sudden one hit that was incredible," said Harry Andros.

The three were in South Florida for a baseball tournament.

"We had a good feeling it was something different than we'd seen," said Paul Paolucci, captain of Hooked Up, the fishing charter boat they took for the trip.

It took them about two hours to reel in the shark.

"It was unreal. Literally, it took forever," said Andros.

"We rotated like five minutes each on the pole and we all got like blisters from it," said Logan Elliot.

"My triceps are sore right now," said Shailer.

"They were ecstatic and exhausted," added Paolucci. "It was a lot of work."

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The group then released the shark.

"It's one of those really big fish, you know, something we've been trying to catch our whole lives," added Paolucci.

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