Man reels in 12-foot shark, really

FLAGLER BEACH, Fla., Sept. 26 (UPI) -- A three-hour, "non-stop tug-of-war" between a Florida fisherman and a hammerhead shark ended when the angler reeled in the 550-pound shark.

"I'm still in shock at the size of this fish," angler Dan Ficochello told Orlando, Fla., television station WKMG. "I'll never catch one bigger than that. That's a catch of a lifetime."

Ficochello said he dropped a barracuda head to the bottom of the ocean floor about 300 yards offshore of Flagler Beach. Seated in his kayak, he was dragging his line back to the Central Florida beach when the 12 1/2-foot shark took the bait.

"My first thought was, 'What am I going to do with this?' Because it wasn't moving, there was no chance of a release. It was done. I had never seen a shark this big before in person," Ficochello said. "It was a non-stop tug-of-war. I was worn out after an hour."