Until today.
Ice fishing with several friends on the Kennebacasis River for hake, I caught one fish.... a 34 inch dogfish shark!
Running several tip ups and waiting for one to show some sign, any sign really of life, one of the tip ups collapsed out of the blue. Knowing, with no wind at all, it had to have been a hit, I rushed over, and sure enough, there was some resistance. I could tell it was something, though I didn't think whatever it was would be much more than a 15 inch hake.
After hauling up about 90 feet of line, and with 5 of us gathered around the hole in anticipation, we finally seen the end of the line, and a white flash of tail. "A shark!" one of the guys exclaimed. "No way I thought" as I tried to figure out how to get it out though my 5 inch hole. The tail came by the hole again and I grabbed it and managed to just barely slide it up through.
Sure enough, we were staring at a 34 inch dogfish shark! While between us only one other fish was caught, a small hake, we all were overjoyed at witnessing a very, very rare catch in these waters. Dogfish were more common here 20 years ago, and once every couple of years you hear of one being caught, typically around 24 inches. To bring up a 34 inch dogfish was really quite remarkable, and something none of us, especially Rowan, will forget for a long time.
Here is a video from J.C (Stroover) of the adventure!
