I think theyre gonna need a bigger boat...
The pair realised something was amiss when something kept grabbing their catches from the hook.
They were stunned to discover a great white shark – one of nature’s most fearsome predators – circling their boat.
The drama happened when the father and son went tuna fishing in South Africa.
Mr Challis senior said: “As we were reeling in the yellowfin, something was taking them. After a few prized specimens went missing, we decided to put a larger fishing rig out, mounted with a previously- caught tuna as bait.”
Within a few minutes, the bait was taken and Jack had hooked something big.
His father attached a rope to the back of his son’s harness for safety.
Jack managed to bring the fish to the boat after
45 minutes of intense angling, to reveal the identity of the creature that was stealing the bait.
In a scene reminiscent of the Stephen Spielberg blockbuster Jaws, the great white suddenly took off at speed, catching the deck hand’s boots in the wire trace.
Mr Challis said: “The deckie was caught up and I was trying release the pressure while holding on to the rope on the
back of Jack’s harness. This enormous fish was now getting tired and Jack pumped the fish to the boat again, where it was released unharmed.”
The pair estimate that the shark weighed more than 2,000lbs.
Mr Challis senior later caught a bronze whaler shark using tuna bait but another great white, this time weighing around 1,500lbs, grabbed its smaller cousin and swallowed it in one gulp.
Mr Challis said: “That’s how big those great whites were.”
The pair are keen conservationists and decided to move from the fishing area, which was clearly a feeding ground for great whites.
Mr Challis said: “These big fish were released unharmed but the yellowfin tuna we caught were barbecued.”
The pair featured in the Newbury Weekly News last May when they went alligator fishing in the Florida Everglades in the US, helping transport the reptiles to a nearby lake where they could not trouble the local farm workers.
