How about one that weighed almost a ton, caught with rod and reel, from a stationary platform? Even with today’s gear, that feat is hard to imagine. But Walter Maxwell did just that, and he actually did it more than once on two South Carolina piers. His all-tackle, world-record tiger shark, caught from the end of Cherry Grove pier on June 14, 1964, stood for 47 years before finally being bested by a boat angler.
Retracing Maxwell’s fishing journey is difficult and often vague. Maxwell was not a flashy fisherman – often described as a blue-collar “Everyman” who simply enjoyed the challenge of battling big fish on the weekends from several Carolina piers.
The first indelible moment shows up in a color photo from early June, 1964 – Maxwell kneeling in the sand in front of Yaupon Pier on Oak Island, North Carolina, stout rod in hand, Dacron-spooled Penn reel as big as his head, behind a giant dead gray shark whose weight is unlisted. A week later, he was down on Cherry Grover pier, and the results were recorded.
Maxwell and his buddies would usually set up big harness-ready tackle on the pier and row in small boats out to deeper water where they would drop their baits. Often they caught rays or skates on enormous steel J-hooks.
On June 13, Maxwell and Co. fought a shark of apparently epic proportions to the pilings, but they were unable to land the fish after it ripped several gaffs from the men’s hands. Eyewitnesses say that shark – also a tiger – was at least 18 feet long and may have topped 2,000 pounds.
The next day, clearly undaunted, Maxwell hooked another monster. The fish burned straight to sea, tore a quarter-mile of line off his reel and slammed him against the pier transom, but with the help of friends dumping water on the smoking reel and a little luck, the shark began running parallel to the beach.
After five hours, and well into the next morning, they finally managed to subdue the world record tiger shark, which was officially weighed at 1,780 pounds. Two years, later Maxwell landed a 1,150 -pound tiger at Yaupon Pier, taking care of the North Carolina state record by a large margin.
