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Giant Mako off Southern California

Texas anglers visiting Huntington Beach, California for shark fishing land a monster short fin mako
917-pound mako shark

Craig Winters (left), Brian Cope and Mako Matt with a 917-pound mako shark caught off Orange County, Calif.

Craig Winters photo.

Craig Winters, 53, of Albany, Texas, and friend Brian Cope were fishing aboard a 37-foot charter boat out of Mako Matt’s Marine in Huntington Beach, California on August 31. While chumming for sharks off South Orange County, they caught a few small blue sharks and chummed in great white then a giant mako grabbed Winters’ bait.

Subdued after a four-hour battle, the mako was too large to bring aboard so it was towed back to port where it** tipped the scales at 917 pounds**.

While far larger than the 200- to 400-pound average size mako caught off southern Cal, Winters’ fish falls short of the current California State Record, a 1,098-pound, 12-ounce shortfin mako caught by Sean Gizatullin at Anacapa Island, Ventura County, in 2010. The World Record is a 1,221-pounder caught off Chatham , Massachusetts in 2001.

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