Catch of a lifetime: Great white shark reeled in off Florida beach pier

PENSACOLA, Fla. – A group of anglers reeled in the catch of a lifetime Tuesday in Florida. 

The True Blue shark fishing team caught a 10-foot long, 650-pound great white shark off the Navarre Beach Fishing Pier about 25 miles east of Pensacola, according to pier employee and True Blue fisherman Thomas Thielman. The rare catch took about an hour and a half to reel in. 

"Well when we got the bite, we did our normal thing and let him eat, then we hooked him up and it was probably about an hour and 30 minute fight," Thielman said. "When we got the leader close, I personally grabbed the leader, and once we realized what it was, that's when everybody's eyes just blew up."

The team tagged and released the shark, and will send the information to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which monitors marine life. The shark was alive and unharmed during the catch. 

It isn't unusual for great white sharks to enter the Gulf of Mexico, but it's extremely rare to catch one – a fact not lost on the True Blue team. 

“It is rare, it is absolutely rare,” Thielman said. “We don’t get that many here. We see sightings of them, but we never caught one. That’s the first one our team has caught. We put a tag on it, got all the measurements, and got a safe, clean release.”

More:Divers in Hawaii may have been swimming with biggest great white shark on record