NEED A BIGGER BOAT— Team Wicked Squid land a record-breaking mako shark during a tournament off the coast of the Channel Islands last weekend. From left to right in front are Sean Gizatullin, Nick Packer and Vince Packer. In back are Corey Donovan and Mark Anthony Real. At right, Gizatullin displays the 1,100-pound shark’s jaws. Team Wicked Squid had no idea what they were up against when they found themselves “running and gunning” after an 1,100- pound mako shark off the coast of Channel Islands last Sunday.

“It’s when the fish goes on the run, and you’ve got to gun that boat to keep up with it,” said Vincent Packer, a 33-year-old Simi Valley resident and captain of the 26-foot, hand-crafted Radoncraft fishing boat named Wicked Squid.

Packer and his four-man crew—his brother Nick Packer, his nephew Mark Anthony Real, and friends Cory Donovan and Sean Gizatullin—spent nearly 90 minutes trying to outrun and reel in the shark during the Pacific Corinthian Yacht Club Open Mako Shark Tournament on July 24 and 25.

Although the team didn’t win the tournament, their giant catch may still break the record for the largest mako shark ever caught off the West Coast of the United States.

According to Packer, Team Wicked Squid would have won the tournament if not for several hassles on the way back to the Channel Islands Harbor, which ultimately caused the crew to be 45 minutes late for the final 4 p.m. weigh-in.

“After we caught it, we totally had time to get it in,” Packer said. “But we ran into problems because of the size and weight of the shark. I just didn’t have the equipment to handle it.”

Dangerous catch

First, the rope they tied around the shark’s tail snapped. Then the welded harness used to wench the shark up on the boat ripped off its hinges, almost dragging 27-yearold Newbury Park resident Gizatullin into the water.

“It was pretty intense,” Gizatullin said. “When that shark came up underneath the boat, it looked like that scene from ‘Jaws’ where you look and see the shark coming at you. It was almost half the size of our boat.”

If Real hadn’t jumped from his position in the boat’s cabin to save his mate, Gizatullin could have fallen into the ocean.

After the team solved those initial problems, Packer said, it was delayed one last time when the wire leader holding the shark got tangled up in the boat’s propeller.

“It stopped my engine,” he said. “We were stuck dead in the water floating around with this big old shark on the boat. So my nephew jumps in the water and starts unwrapping it. It took about 20 to 30 minutes to do it. Once we got it out, we kept going, and we had the wind and waves against us all the way back to the harbor.”

Breaking the record In order to qualify for the state record, Packer said, there can only be one man operating the rod and reel. In this case, Gizatullin was that man, so it’s his name that will appear on the record once it’s verified by the California Department of Fish and Game.

According to the department’s website, the two largest recorded mako sharks caught off the coast were 13 feet long and 1,000 pounds, and 11.5 feet long and 1,030 pounds respectively.

The mako shark caught by Team Wicked Squid measured 11.5 feet long and weighed 1,100 pounds.

“For a shark that size, you’re going to have to kill it,” Packer said. “Otherwise it’ll hurt someone or cause major damage to someone’s boat.

Gizatullin, who’s been a fisherman since childhood, said that catching a shark has been a lifelong dream.

“I take it as a great sign,” he said. “I thought, ‘If I could bring in this shark, I can do anything I put my mind to.’”

A good deed

When he’s not out fishing on the weekends, Vince Packer is a Simi Valley mail carrier. And after a big catch, he sometimes brings fresh fish to Elizabeth Hernandez and her family, who live along his route.

“He’s been my mailman for five or six years,” Hernandez said. “Sometimes he stops by during the early evening with his children, and I make fish tacos or grill some on the barbecue.”

She said Packer has become good friends with Manuel, her father in-law, who gives him cigars to smoke on his fishing trips.

“I don’t really smoke,” Packer said. “But when I go out on the boat and I smoke one of those cigars, I always catch fish. Ever since I started doing that, it’s brought me nothing but good luck.”

Packer has brought the Hernandez family all types of fish, including shark, mackerel and tuna.

This time around, he and his crew have donated the meat of the mako shark to the New Fishall Bait Company, which will distribute it to organizations that feed the homeless. It’s been estimated it will feed more than 500 people.

“That’s the only right thing to do, because that’s a lot of meat,” Packer said.