Honeymooners Catch 800-Pound Tiger Shark—Together
Newlyweds Will and Ashton Weber hooked into the same shark at the same time while fishing with two separate rods on a Florida beach
What better way to embark on a lifetime of matrimony than to catch an 800-pound shark on separate lines at the same time. That’s what Maryland newlyweds Will and Ashton Weber did last Wednesday evening on their honeymoon at Navarre Beach on Florida’s panhandle about 26 miles east of Pensacola.
Will and Ashton had just said their “I do’s” in the Free State and drove 1,400 miles to celebrate the momentous occasion on the Gulf of Mexico. But they opted for a non-traditional form of observance—they hired Dylan Wier and Blaine Kenny of Coastal Worldwide for a night of shark fishing.
And they were not disappointed. Just after sunset, something big bumped Ashton’s PENN 130. Then, a short while later, Will also hooked up on his Avet 80 Narrow, and it seemed they might be heading for a rare simultaneous landing on their very first shark fishing venture together. Better yet, symbolically at least, they soon discovered that they were fighting the very same fish—a 12-foot tiger shark that had taken both their baits. Aw.
“When that fish got close enough where I could drop the harness, you know, and drop the rod and really get in there with it, man, I was just blown away,” Will told Fox10 News. “I was just completely…I was in shock at the size of this fish. It was unbelievable how big this fish really was.”
“It was crazy,” Ashton added.
It may have been a mind-blowing first for Will and Ashton, but it wasn’t for Wier and Kenny. A video on their Youtube channel documents a rendezvous a few months ago when they caught a giant great white shark with clients in Alabama.
Related: Watch a Pair of Surf Fishermen Catch a 13-Foot Great White Shark
The guides gifted the honeymooners the two circle hooks used to land their once-in-a-lifetime catch. “On our first time ever, we got both of them. We managed to catch it and be able to keep both, so it makes a heart. It’s like the perfect little thing,” Ashton says in a video shared on Fox10 News, as the couple puts the hooks together to form a heart shape.
According to Oceana, tiger sharks, which typically live in shallow coastal waters, can grow up to 18 feet and 2,000 pounds. They are a protected species and must be released quickly and in good health.
After taming the massive shark, the Webers had other important honeymoon business to tend to. They took a swordfishing trip on Friday.