PADRE ISLAND, Texas — A man who went fishing Saturday off Texas' Padre Island made a catch he said he's "only dreamed about" – a 14-foot hammerhead shark.
According to KSAT, Robstown fisherman Poco Cedillo, who caught the shark at the Padre Island National Seashore, shared the story of his "catch of multiple lifetimes" in a now-viral post on the South Texas Fishing Association's Facebook page.
Cedillo wrote that he spent an hour and 15 minutes reeling in the hammerhead, "which is beast mode for a shark that big."
"While leadering it we noticed she was very tired, so we quickly took pics, got a length measurement, took the hook out and did all we could to get her released," the post read. "All that only took around 3-5 min while it still in plenty deep water. At the time we didn't bother getting a girth, fork length or even tried tagging her. Our main focus was to get her released quickly. Well after 30-40 min of us holding her up into the current in 3-4' of water we were faced with accepting the fact that she was done. We were so tired, shark rashed and disappointed that it sucked the excitement right out of us for a while."
Because the hammerhead appeared to be dying, Cedillo said he and the other fishermen did "everything we could to save the meat," which they donated.
Cedillo said the shark had a fork length of 135 inches and a 78-inch girth.