What kind of shark was it?

[Tunaman 1]

This summer, Mid July, I was out with my buddy Jim about 30 miles off the beach targeting makos. With much success the previous season I said why not give it a shot. We broke the inlet at 5:30 arriving around 7 to the spot. We started a beautiful slick, 3 lines at different depths, perfect conditions with all lines aligned. Due to the exhaustion of prepping the night before I passed out in the cabin, letting Jim keep an eye out. Around 9:30am Jim yells in excitement "GET UP", I didn't see anything at first but I few seconds later it was apparent tha we had somthing huge in our slick. I would say the dorsal fin measured about 18-20" out of the water. While exposing most of his dorsal fin, I was able to see his huge body at the surface-his body was girthy. I think the shark was pushing 600-700lbs. The fin was triangular, but didnt have that signature mako curve to it. I guesstimate the distance between the dorsal fin and caudal to be about 7 feet. This shark was in our slick for about an hour and fifteen minutes. He went from one balloon to next sniffing our baits (fresh blue fish filets) but he didnt even nibble at them. We tried throwing every bait possible at it but no luck. At one point, the shark emerged about 10 feet behind the boat and was coming straight for my transom, but then went back down. We did not hook up that day Iam thinking it was either a Great WHite or Tiger shark??? Do great whites feed off of NJ? Any input would be great!!

[floridadeckie]

what color was it? brown or gray, or bluish?

[Squidnation]

My guess would be great white. rarely do tigers pass up a meal. I have had great whites nudge a bait out of the way just to keep on swimming. Plus tigers have a distinct look to them. squarish head that make id'ing them pretty easy along with their tigerstrip. The stripes become less obvious the bigger they get.

Also could have been a basking shark. they have been around quite a bit lately.

[Bert Rodgers]

There were quite a few GW encounters similar to yours last summer off the mid Atlantic region. Very fiew hookups but lot's of sightings.

Bert

[HOLWACHAGOT]

Yes white sharks do feed off NJ. Don't know what you saw though.
Holwachagot

[Double D]

I had great whites in my slick twice this year, big suckers. Had to move the boat to get away from one of them. For whatever reason, there seemed to be alot of sightings this year.

Never messed with the baits. Glad they didn't, but not sure why

[gman]

It could have been a basking shark. Fits description ... huge fish brownish in color, the fins are huge and not as pointy mostly rounded. Swims lazily below surface and wont feed obviously.

We had one last season that swam up through the slick, we were all excited until we realized what it was. Other than that both GW's and Tigers frequent our waters depending on location

[Tunaman 1]

I didnt see any stripes as it was breaking the surface. Dorsal was dark grey. It was kind of doing circles around the baits. I cant say that it was swimming lazily either. Iam almost glad we didnt hook up with the monster, the results could have been fatal. It was truly a cool sight, wish I had the camcorder. At first I thought there was a smaller mako swimming behind this shark, but then realized it was the tail-it was pretty far behind. I guess besides the winter weather we experience, we do have some great fishing and interesting sightings.

[Big Jay]

I am going to go ahead and say Great White. July, 30 miles off the beach, still could be seeing whites making the trip north.

[Jared D]

My guess would be great white. rarely do tigers pass up a meal. I have had great whites nudge a bait out of the way just to keep on swimming. Plus tigers have a distinct look to them. squarish head that make id'ing them pretty easy along with their tigerstrip. The stripes become less obvious the bigger they get.

I would agree with this. Never seen a white, but I catch Tigers all the time. I have yet to have one NOT eat. They are absolutely pigs. You can catch, tag and release one, and 2 hours later rehook em.

Plus, the size dorsal your talking about negates a tiger. Their dorsal (on a 12 footer) isnt going to be much larger than 12-14 inches. They have a short stubbier dorsal than alot of sharks. I would need to hear more. Color of the dorsal helps in distingishing. I saw someone mention brown, but didnt see OP say so.