KEY POINTS:
Fifteen-year-old Gene Darvill of Katikati has no idea how much the shark he battled for two hours to land weighs - but it took a car to tow it up the beach.
"I think it's a bronze whaler," said Gene who hooked the shark on Tuesday night. "It had been hanging around the Kauri Point wharf taking people's fish, including kingis, for days, so we were targeting it."
It was a case of third time unlucky for the shark, which had taken two bonito head baits earlier in the evening.
With the help of his friend Alex van Huotum, 16, who held the game rod, Gene spent two hours walking up and down the Kauri Pt wharf winding the shark in, waiting until it was tired enough to bring into the shallows.
Then, about 1am, Gene, Alex and Josh Gordon, 14, walked into ankle-deep water to tie a rope around the shark's tail and drag it ashore with a car.
"There was a small hammerhead shark in the water while we were pulling it in," said Gene, who admitted it was a bit scary being in the water with the shark, even though it was pretty worn out. "Then we went home [to Ongare Pt] and got the trailer."
Back at the wharf, the trio tilted the trailer and used the car to drag the shark on to the tray to take home.
Gene told his parents what he had caught when they woke up the next morning.
Gene has been fishing "virtually all my life" and has his own boat, which he regularly takes out on Tauranga Harbour.
He said he would probably gut the shark to see what was inside it. Other than that he didn't know what he would do with it.
Just before Christmas, a 113kg 3m bronze whaler shark was caught in the Omokoroa channel and there have been many shark sightings in the harbour since then.
- BAY OF PLENTY TIMES
