Cape Man Hooks Great White In An 'Absolutely Bananas' Beach Day

ORLEANS, MA — Matt Pieciak's Sunday was supposed to be a typical family beach day, with cornhole, food, beers and fishing. But it turned out to be a day the Orleans family will remember for the rest of their lives after Pieciak hooked a great white shark off the coast of Nauset Beach.

Pieciak said he originally was going to surf, but the tide was too high. So Pieciack's dad brought some bait to catch some bass and blue fish.

Pieciak went back to playing cornhole with his family and friends, when all of a sudden, he started to see his rod bend like never before. He turned to his cousin Cal and said, "Dude, hold my beer," and sprinted toward his rod.

"At first, the way the rod was behaving and with the bait I was using, I was pretty certain it was a fish," Pieciak said. "But then I saw this great, gray shadow, and we immediately knew it was a great white. It was cool to feel on the end of the line and see the tail fin and dorsal fin splashing pretty violently."

See video of the great white shark encounter here.

Pieciak said it's likely a large fish took his bait before the shark went after the fish on his line. He estimated the shark was about 12 feet long.

"It was definitely exciting," Pieciak said. "Part of me wasn’t very surprised, but by the reaction of everyone around us, I slowly understood the magnitude of what was going on. It was absolutely bananas. I was glad my whole family was there."

Specifically, Pieciak said he was overjoyed his cousin Maggie Chiarcia was there, as she filmed the great white encounter. Pieciak said he was amazed at his cousin's quick camerawork and thanked her.

"The fact my cousin was so quick with the camera, the chances of getting a camera up it’s not common for something that quickly to get filmed," he said. "The fact she was able to get it up and get it filmed was exciting."