I was fishing the stern of the Pelican when we spotted the mako. Capt John rigged a rod and tossed a chunk of bonita out, needless to say the mako took it. I ended up with the rod as the fish stripped everything off a 10/0 except one turn of line (yes, one time around the spool) and burned both of my thumbs. About that time John got the anchor up and started backing to the fish, I started cranking like crazy.
I saw the fish jump once, others said it jumped twice. Once we were free it was simply pump, thumb the spool, and crank. The fish did make a number of good runs and wasn't about to tire out fast. I was able to get it to the boat but couldn't budge it the last couple of feet up to get a killing shot. After about an hour I gave the rod to a younger guy and in a few minutes he got the head up for the kill shot.
It was a lot of fun getting that shark onto the boat, ropes, gaffs and every person onboard lent both hands getting that fish landed.
Ten feet eight inches long and 58 inches in girth.
This is one worn out old fart!