Watch: Connecticut men reel in estimated 700-pound thresher shark

Yahoo

08-08-2025

Aug. 8 (UPI) -- A pair of Connecticut anglers may have broken a state record when they reeled in a 16-foot thresher shark they estimated to weigh about 700 pounds.
Ed Lovely and Moe Giovanni said they were out on the Long Island Sound in Lovely's 16.5-foot boat last week when they hooked something big.
"I was hand feeding the line out, I got down to 45 or 50 feet and boom, I tell Moe boom something just hit and -- bang, zoom -- it started spooling us," Lovely told WTIC-TV.
The men ended up struggling with the thresher shark for six hours. The men said they took turns wearing the fishing belt and holding the rod.
"You need to have teamwork getting a fish like that because one guy has to drive the boat while the other guy's got to reel and tell him which way it's going and starboard side, port side, and so for those hours we were just going back and forth," Giovanni said.
The men said they were shocked when they finally saw the size of the fish.
"A few hours later, I finally saw the shark way out, and it was ginormous. It was huge," Lovely told WTNH-TV. "I was like, 'This is crazy.' Even Moe was like, 'This is the biggest fish I've ever seen.'"
They were finally about to harpoon the shark after six hours of struggling. They towed their catch back to shore, where they loaded it into Lovely's truck.
The shark's estimated 700-pound weight was so heavy that it snapped a bolt on Lovely's winch while unloading it from the truck.
"I was smiling like a little kid," Lovely said. "This stuff doesn't happen, especially on a boat that size and a rod that size."
The anglers are now attempting to determine whether their catch is indeed a new state record.
State records currently list the largest shark caught in Connecticut waters as a 650-pound mako shark caught in 1987.
A Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection representative said a marine trophy fish award application for the shark is being reviewed by officials.