Great White Shark Gives Solo Ocean County Fisherman A Bucket List Moment

OFF ATLANTIC CITY, NJ — Travis Bogin loves few things more than to spend time fishing. From the time he was little, catching fish has been one of his favorite ways to relax.

Over the years, he has chased bigger and bigger fish. The sunnies he caught in a freshwater pond with his grandfather when he was 5 years old gave way to saltwater fishing, with striped bass and bluefish, and to bigger game — tuna and sharks.

On Wednesday, Bogin crossed one fish off his bucket list, one he hadn't expected to encounter: a great white shark.

"You see them on TV, on the National Geographic channel, and they're cool," he said in a phone interview with Patch on Friday. "To see one in the wild up close, it’s pretty amazing."

"It was a lot of shock and excitement," said Bogin, 39, a Toms River South graduate who lives in the Mystic Islands section of Little Egg Harbor.

Bogin was fishing by himself in his 21-foot boat about 12 miles off Atlantic City on Wednesday, looking to catch thresher sharks, when he was surprised by the juvenile great white. He had been fishing for about four hours at when the white took his bait about 11:30 a.m.

"I picked up one rod and moved it, and as soon as I put it back in the holder it hit," he said, the rod tip bending from the shark swimming away from the boat with the hook in its mouth.

Bogin wasn't sure at first what kind of shark he had hooked until he saw its white belly and gray on top. He was in disbelief.

"I know it's a rare thing to run into," Bogin said. The shark had taken the bait on his biggest rod so he worked to get it boatside as quickly as possible to limit the stress on the fish.

"She made two good runs," he said, and when the shark was close enough to the boat he reached down and cut the line close to the hook to set it free. He was using a rustable circle hook, designed to catch in the corner of the fish's mouth instead of deep in their insides. Tt will rust away quickly.

"A shark like that you don’t want to get too close to, especially since I was fishing alone," Bogin said of the white, which was about 5-1/2 feet long. "Even though it was a juvenile, the teeth on it were still impressive."

It swam away after the 10-minute fight, Bogin said.

"I’ve caught all kinds of things," he said, and enjoys the challenge of larger and more exotic fish. "The white was a bucket list kind of thing."

The great white wasn't the only shark he caught Wednesday. Bogin also hooked what he believes was a sand tiger. That shark, which he estimated at 10 feet long, took the bait on his smallest rod, which had a spinning reel on it.

He fought that shark for about an hour and a half.

"I didn't have a chance to clear the other lines," Bogin said, referring to reeling in baits he had out on other rods, to get them out of the way. As a result, the shark wrapped itself in those other lines. Finally it got close enough where Bogin was able to break the line and set it free.

"I was done after that," he said with a laugh.

Bogin, who is a member of the carpenters union and owns a landscaping business, said he fishes as often as he can and always has, even preferring to fish when his grandfather wanted to take him to the town pool in Milltown.

"If I could be out there every day, I would be," he said, and isn't afraid to push the limits with his 21-footer when the weather is right.

But after Wednesday's shark experience, he had another thought.

"It might be time for a bigger boat," he said.