Real Life 'Shark Week' for Father and Son
The shark they caught was half the size of their kayak.
Aug. 23, 2011— -- For Kevin Stevens and his 9-year-old son Hunter, last Saturday started off as a regular day of shark fishing.
They had been out in their kayak off the Galveston, Texas, coast for three hours when they decided they wanted to call it a day because of the heat.
Before Stevens took in his fishing pole, though, one of the reels started clicking. He started reeling it in to see what it was, and the line was completely limp.
"Apparently the shark had been coming at me so I didn't feel it on the line," Stevens told ABC News. "It realized there was a kayak in front of it, and it took off running."
Stevens released the kayak's anchor, and proceeded to be pulled up and down the coast, one pocket beach to the next, for about an hour, which he called a "Texas sleigh ride."
The two fishermen knew they had a big shark on the line, but when they finally got it into the boat they saw the actual size.
"We were shocked," Stevens said. "We didn't realize how big it was."
The shark was between six and seven feet long -- Stevens used his six and a half foot paddle to measure it -- and his kayak was only 12 feet.
Stevens called his wife Christina and told her they'd caught a big shark. She didn't realize how big until she saw it for herself; Hunter taped six minutes of the adventure on his video camera.
"I showed her the shark, and in the first five seconds she almost fell over," Stevens said. "She said, 'Put it on Facebook.' And she never says that about our fishing pictures."
Hunter was also shocked when he first saw how big the shark was. He is not afraid of sharks, but was a little bit scared when he saw the dorsal fin come out of the water and then the tail, his father said.
"This is his first big shark on a kayak, first big shark, period," Stevens said. "He was like, 'Daddy, daddy that looks like a great white.' He was picturing something different.
"He has exciting stories to tell. His friends don't believe him," he said. "When his friends are playing video games, we're out on adventures. Now he has a video tape."
Stevens said the experience could be compared more to the "Old Man and the Sea" versus "Shark Week" on the Discovery Channel.
"This thing pulled us up and down the beach, I was exhausted," he said. "I could barely hold it anymore, a rain shower rained on us for 20 minutes."
When he made the comparison to his son Hunter out on the water, the boy said, "I'm going to have to read it when I get back."