Mangonui man Ian Lange got more than he bargained for when he went to empty his mullet net near Mill Bay last Saturday morning.
Instead of a few mullet for the smoker, he discovered he'd inadvertently caught a bronze whaler shark longer than his dinghy - in just four feet of water below Rangikapiti Pa.
His wife, Sharon, said the three-metre shark was a dead weight and difficult to haul in, so he pulled it ashore, where she photographed it for posterity.
"Fortunately the shark was dead, otherwise the outcome could have been a lot different in such a little boat," she said.
Ian then got back into his dinghy and, using one hand on hold on to the shark's tail and the other to operate the tiller arm of the outboard, towed the shark out to the harbour entrance to rejoin the food chain.
