The stunned dad reeled in a 12.5ft Tiger Shark while on a fishing trip with his son, setting a new personal record for the biggest catch he’s ever made

Christian Haltermann reached a new record by catching a 12.5ft tiger shark (Image: Christian Haltermann)

A man on a fishing trip has hit a new personal target recently after reeling in a 12.5ft tiger shark.

After setting up and spending the day at Padre Island National Seashore off the coast of South Texas, Christian Haltermann, 36, was shocked to find what was at the end of his line.

He was on a weekend fishing trip with his 8-year-old son when he caught the shark.

Having attended this park multiple times with his dad and even learning to fish there, Haltermann admits this is the biggest thing he’s ever caught.

He returns there often, about twice a month to fish which is his favourite pastime.

The shark measured in at more than twice the dad’s height (Image: Christian Haltermann)

Christian took a big bit of bait last afternoon in the hopes of reeling in a few catches but what awaited him was greater than he could ever imagine.

He loaded up his custom 9-foot rods and kayaked about 900 metres into the water and dropped his bait of a 10-pound stingray into the water. He then returned to shore and waited for a bite.

Christian told Caller Times: “(Last) Saturday evening we got picked up at about 7pm. and I instantly knew it was a monster. We knew it was a big one for sure.”

He then scrambled to reel this monster catch in. After about two and a half hours of fighting with the catch, Christian knew he needed help and sent his son to find people to help.

Christian had to recruit the help of two fellow campers to reel the beast in (Image: Christian Haltermann)

Two nearby campers soon joined to help.

As a volunteer at the area, Christian takes measurements of the sharks he catches before tagging and releasing them back into the wild. After finally getting the tiger shark to shore, he determined it was female and took his measurements.

“I don’t ever want to remove them from the water because the priority is getting released. We got the hooks removed, took a couple quick pictures and sent her on her way, but she was super lively and she swam off real strong.”

“I have quite a few tiger sharks over the 10-foot mark and even more over the 9 foot, but nothing over 12,” Haltermann said. “That was a new benchmark that we were trying to achieve and it’s so cool that we got that.”