Giant Shark Catch A 'Heartbreaker'

Talk about the catch of the day!

A 1,191-pound tiger shark was caught off Martha's Vineyard, Mass., last weekend by fishermen taking part in a monster shark fishing derby.

But the crew of the Castafari was too late returning to Oak Bluffs harbor to qualify for first place in the competition.

And crew members made it clear to co-anchor Julie Chen on The Early Show Thursday that they're still upset about it.

Captain Damon Sacco told Chen it was "great" reeling in such a huge catch, an "amazing experience for all of us. It was the biggest fish that I've ever seen next to my boat. You know, game fish, that is. And we were successful in catching that shark, and it was obviously a heartbreaker in the end, because we lost the competition."

They missed the weigh-in deadline by six minutes.

Angler Ivo Allen says the crew got the shark "with a lot sweat and a lot of chaos. When the fish hit, it was just -- everyone did their job. Everyone reacted. I didn't even have time to put my shoes on. I got strapped into the harness. …It was just off to the races. Two hours, 10 minutes to fight it."

What did they use as bait?

"We were using squid. Big squid," Allen answered.

Mates Jay Cheromcha and Andre Mallegol gaffed the shark and pulled it in.

Mallegol explained, "I wired him. That means you gotta control him the last 30 feet. You can't reel in the line. It's wire. My job is grab the wire and work the fish so we can get a gaffe into him, which is how you actually connect to the fish."

The shark, which reportedly had a large turtle intact in its stomach, was donated for research, says Sacco: "They're going to learn a lot from this shark. You don't see many tiger sharks in the area like this. So this is great."

And they vowed to win the derby next time, with Allen saying, "We'll start six minutes earlier next time!"