THERE’S plenty of fish in the sea for Esperance anglers Joshua Butterworth and Jethro Bonnitcha, who hooked a string of massive tiger sharks on a beach near Carnarvon last week.
The pair, aged 29 and 30, spent four days last week fishing for the biggest sharks they could find as part of a film on land based shark fishing.
Their efforts were rewarded, landing 10 enormous tiger sharks and hooking others that were “up to five metres long”, according to Mr Butterworth.
“We landed them up to 4.5 metres but we lost bigger ones,” he said.
“We just bring them in, take a few photos, have a cuddle and send them on their way.
The duo have spent years refining their fishing methods, enabling them to reel in a full-grown sharks in a matter of minutes.
Mr Butterworth said he managed to reel in one of the tigers in just 12 minutes, despite the sharks “pulling like buggery”.
“They’re a little bit upset when they’re on the sand and they thrash about, not a lot, but they thrash about a little bit,” he said.
“Once they’re in the water though, they’ll sit on your lap, they’re happy to. It’s more of an adrenaline rush than catching them.”
The electrician said he paddled the bait out on a kayak and used a stand-up harness to help pull the enormous sharks in.
“When Jethro went out he had a 12 footer and a 10 footer (shark) come up to him at once when he was paddling his boat out,” he said.
“There was sharks swimming two to three metres off the shore throughout the day as we were fishing. So you’re sitting in the water with one but you keep your sunnies on looking out for others.”
It’s not the first time the pair have been recognised for their extraordinary catches.
In early January they spent 10 days fishing off a beach north of Carnarvon and caught approximately 30 sharks.
Among them was a 4.1 metre hammerhead and a tiger shark also estimated to be more than four metres long.
They plan on chasing blue marlin for their next trip off the coast of Exmouth.
