Quite a fish story from NJ this past week

[B-Faithful]

This is from a friend of my family in Strathmere NJ (town south of Ocean City NJ). Fishing has been great up there for big bass for both boat and surf fishermen. However this is a great story that I thought I would share:

We have a new neighbor who is renting a unit over the Shack this summer. Terry, his wife Andrea and his dad Terry (senior) are active fisherman and have caught a few keepers in the surf. On Sunday, Terry took his kayak out about a mile in front of Ed T's house and found a school of bait fish (bunker).
Snagging one he hooked it onto his line and put it back in the school.
As it dropped to the bottom of ocean this 49", 49 lb cow took the bait. He tied the cow to the side of his kayak and paddled back to shore escorted by a thresher shark! By the time he reached the beach he had quite the following.

Can you imagine kayak fishing off the beach, catching and landing a 49lber striper?? This doesnt account for the fact that as he was trying to tie the fish off to the boat that he had a thresher shark interested in his catch. I would have loved to have seen him coming in through the surf!

Here is a shot of the fish once he got home