I don’t think there is a creature in the ocean that is more feared by the masses or coveted by shark fisherman than the Great White Shark. With an average length of a full grown great white shark being 13.3 ft to 15.8 ft, and an average weight of 1,500 lbs to 2,450 lbs, females generally being larger than the males.

Today, though we are not concerned with what average is, we are looking for world record great white shark fishing stories. So what constitutes a record great white shark? Well most experts contend that the great white shark has a normal maximum size of about 20 feet, and a maximum weight of about 4,200 lb. Any claims much beyond these limits are generally regarded as doubtful, and are closely scrutinized by the scientific community.

When I first came up with the idea of doing my first post on record shark fishing on the great white shark, I figured it would be easy to research maybe the top three biggest world record great white sharks ever caught. Boy was I mistaken. It appears that shark fishing is just like regular fishing. There are a lot of fishing stories and very few facts. So I guess I will give you the stories and you will have to figure out the facts for yourself.

For many decades there have been three great white sharks that many in the shark fishing community along with several publications including the Guinness Book of World Records have cited as the worlds largest. The third largest great white shark was caught in the South Australian waters near Port Fairy in the 1870’s. This shark according to accounts at the time measured roughly 36 feet long. The second largest shark ever caught was trapped in herring weir in New Brunswick, Canada in the 1930’s. It supposedly measured 37.6 feet long. Then we have the world record holder a 41.2 ft monster caught off the west coast of the Azores Islands by a Portugese fishing trawler.

While these extreme sizes were commonly accepted among the shark fishing community, and great whites in the 25 ft to 33 ft were often considered common and credible. So as you can see if I believe the current scientific consensus these sharks can’t get much larger than 21 to 23 feet long. It is kind of sad really if we have these giant sharks on the record list. How are current fisherman who want to break the world great white shark fishing supposed to do that if there isn’t credible numbers. I guess we will have to just hope and dream of that 41.3 ft monster the next time that we go shark fishing!

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