FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Several South Florida fisherman out with a charter group reeled in a pretty big catch to ring in 2020.
According to the group, they caught a 13-foot great white shark.
They were traveling on a boat named Out Of The Blue, which is part of the fishing charter company Fishing Headquarters.
"We were out there for probably a good three hours with not much activity, so we were just kind of lounging around there, enjoying the sun, and then all of the sudden, pretty much the entire boat started yanking down, so we knew we hooked a big one," said Josh Bieber, part of the charter group.
When it happened, one of the youngest people on the boat was holding onto the reel, fighting the shark as it took off with the line.
"I thought I was going to get yanked out of the boat, that thing was pulling really hard," said Simon Asnes.
It took the entire boat about an hour and 20 minutes to reel in the massive shark.
"Once in a lifetime," said Bobby Diaz with Fishing Headquarter. "I’ve been doing this for 10 years, never seen nothing like that."
Said Bieber: "It was like seeing a unicorn, we were just all blown away."
Great white sharks are protected, so the group released it after they measured and tagged it.