During a fishing trip on Midsummer’s Day, Joakim Dahlbom and his family got a real surprise on the hook.
It turned out that the heavy pacifier was a 121-centimeter-long spike shark – something that shocked everyone in the boat, to say the least.
– We could just as well have bathed there, says Joakim Dahlbom.
On Midsummer’s Day, Joakim Dahlbom and his brother-in-law went out with their families to fish for mackerel outside Skärhamn by Tjörn on the west coast. But when they got the hang of the hook, a real surprise came.
Seven minute long fight
– Then I felt that something really big hit. It was very, very, very heavy, says Joakim Dahlbom.
In the end, after a roughly seven-minute long fight, they caught the “fish” and it wasn’t until it turned around that they realized it was a 121.5-centimeter long spike shark they had caught.
– Then we were all quite shocked and surprised, then you were on your guard because it has real shark teeth, these triangular saw teeth, so they are quite sharp.
Joakim Dahlbom says that the children in the boat thought it was a bit scary.
– We could just as easily swim there, it’s not deep and it’s not far from the harbour, he says.
Attracted by blood in the water
Joakim says that they had put pieces of mackerel on the hook and poured out leftovers from the cleaning that had blood on them in the water, something that he believes attracted the shark. As the shark was longer than the limit to take a stickleback, the family quickly took some pictures of the shark and then threw the stickleback back into the water.
Now Joakim Dahlbom tells us that he and his brother-in-law are talking about going out and fishing for shark for real.
– It was the biggest fish I’ve ever caught and I’ve never caught a shark before so it was very shocking for everyone, but in a fun way. Everyone thought it was great fun and laughed. It was only the smallest children who thought it was a bit scary, he says.