Madison Angler Catches A Shark While Fishing On His Paddleboard

MAIDSON, CT – When Eddie Carroll went fishing on Sunday morning, He was hoping to catch a good-sized Blue Fish since he was taking place in the Blue Fish tournament, but what he saw that Sunday morning was not something he was ready for.

Carroll grew up in Madison and started fishing at a young age on Long Island Sound, and an appreciation for the Sound grew.

“My favorite thing to do is to go out on my paddleboard and spend a good chunk of my time out there,” Carroll said.

Carroll said the first day of the tournament was on Saturday.

“I went out in the morning and caught a 35-inch Blue Fish, but I was a little disappointed by the weigh-in,” he said. “Day two, I went out in the morning and tried to get a bigger Blue Fish than I caught on Saturday.”

Carroll said he caught a Porgy fish and used that as his bait in hopes of catching a bigger-sized Blue Fish.

“I launched at the four parking spots on Middle Beach Road, and I was about a couple hundred yards past Tuxis Island,” he said. “I was more towards the Hammonasset Beach State Park side of Middle Beach Road.”

One of the reasons Carroll said he’s so comfortable fishing on his paddleboard is there aren’t many sharks On Long Island Sound.

Paul Copleman, Media Relations Manager for the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, said the shark Carroll caught was a female sandbar or Brown Shark.

“Coastal sharks (brown, dusky and sand tiger) were once common along the East Coast. These specials spend the summer months in Long Island Sound delivering their live young pups in relatively shallow water along sandy beaches,” Copleman said. “Due to overfishing during the 80’s and 90’s, their numbers were severely impacted. Through marine fisheries management, coast sharks are slowly making a recovery. It will take decades for these species to recover due to their low reproductivity rate, only delivering one to three pups every summer and a very long gestation period of 18-24 months.”

When Carroll first hooked onto the Brown Shark, he thought it was a big Blue Fish, bigger than he had caught Saturday morning.

“It took all of my fishing line, and I had to slow it down a little by putting my finger against the drag,” he said. “I knew it was big when it took off, but shark never crossed my mind. I thought it was a big Blue Fish or Stripped Bass.”

Carroll said he had a little mushroom anchor down, and it was still dragging him.

“I was shocked how powerful it was from the beginning,” he said. “It crossed the anchor, so I needed to pull that out so it wouldn’t get tangled, and once I pulled it out, the shark took me out for a ride.”

Carroll estimated the size of the Brown Shark was about 8 or 9 feet long.

“Some of the big Stripers and Blues will give you some of that power in spurts at the beginning, but the consistent power of this shark was unbelievable,” Carroll added.

Carroll said the Brown Shark started to pull him straight out to the middle of The Sound for another 30 to 45 minutes.

“At that point, I was thinking maybe it was a giant striper, like the biggest I’ve ever caught, or I might have something like a shark on here,” he said. “Because I was part of the Blue Fish Tournament is why I was so committed to see what it was.”

“Also, I’m out there alone, so I needed to take home some evidence, or it just becomes another fishing story,” Carroll added. “It took a while to get it close enough even to see it, but when I first did see it, it was like, ‘Oh My God,’ but I wasn’t scared because I catch plenty of Sand Shark Dogfish, which at first I thought it could have been a big dogfish.”

Copleman, DEEP media relations manager, said sharks are essential to the ecosystem.

“They are a keystone species, holding together a complex web of species relationships in a healthy marine ecosystem,” he said.

“I believe sharks returning to the sound is positive for the ecosystem,” Carroll said. “I want people to respect them and know they are there, but overall, I think it’s probably a good thing.”

Carroll said he primarily fishes for sport and rarely harvests the fish he catches.

“Once I got a few clear videos of the shark, I cut the line when it was close to the board. I tried to get as close as I could to the hook without jeopardizing myself, and I didn’t have the proper equipment to deal with something that powerful with teeth,” he said.

From hooking onto the shark to releasing, it took about an hour.

“When I pulled my mushroom anchor up, it was about half an hour into it,” he said. “It was another 30 to 45 minutes after I cut the line. And once I cut the line, I knew I had a long paddle back, and I knew my day of fishing was done. I was exhausted, and my back was burning tired.”

Carroll said when he started paddling back to shore. He said he was close to being in line with Faulkner’s Island.

“I was about that far out and on the edge of Hammonasset where Hammonasset meets Middle Beach Road,” he said.

Copleman said sharks are highly migratory coastal species, spending summer and fall in southern New England and then migrating south in the winter.

“Most of these sharks are less than 10 feet in length and are primarily piscivores (fish eaters), eating the same fish we all like to catch while fishing, especially menhaden or Bunker Fish, one of the most important fish in the sea,” he said.