CT man catches 8ft shark while paddling in LI Sound

A Connecticut man caught an 8-foot shark while paddling in Long Island Sound.

Eddie Carroll, 30, of Northford, was competing in the world’s largest bluefish tournament when he captured an 8-foot female sandbar shark on August 27th.

It was day two of the tournament when Carroll caught the fish, also known as the brown shark, which was just a few feet shorter than his 12-foot paddleboard.

He had caught a much smaller fish on day one of the tournament and returned on day two hoping to catch a prizewinner.

“I’m involved in the biggest thing I’ve ever had at stake,” Carroll is heard saying in a comment Video he filmed.

His fishing pole was badly bent as he struggled to keep the beast at bay.

“I’ve had a glimpse of it, I think it’s a basking shark,” he said in the video.

Seconds later, the shark appears next to his board and calmly swims next to it.

“This is insane,” Carroll said.

Carroll began his trip around 8 a.m. off Middle Beach Road in Madison, Connecticut, where he caught Porgy as bait to help locate larger fish New Haven Register.

After dropping a small anchor from its board, the shark quickly grabbed its line.

“I knew it was something really big,” he told the Register.

The shark pulled Carroll further out, near Faulkner Island.

The shark dragged him around for another hour before the 30-year-old realized he hadn’t caught a bluefish.

After catching a glimpse of the animal, he realized it was pulled by a shark.

Eventually he cut the leash and let the shark run away on its own.

The frequent fisherman has caught smaller sharks before, such as dogfish, but never a shark as large as the brown shark.

“They are nowhere near the size or power that the brown shark had. It was pretty incredible to feel the power of the brown shark,” he told the local outlet.

The brown shark is one of the largest shark species found in Long Island Sound.