Ella Griffioen comes from a long line of outdoorsmen. In fact, her mother Tara was featured at The WON in a guest post, where she shared her story of reeling in a Blacktip shark while bowfishing. So, when Ella’s father Nathan reached out and asked if we would highlight her record-setting fishing haul of an over 7-foot bull shark, we couldn’t resist the chance to tell her story. Keep reading as Ella’s proud dad tells her story. ~ The Editors
The sun had barely climbed over the mangroves of Gasparilla Sound when 11-year-old angler Ella Griffioen set the hook. At 8:30 a.m., the calm morning turned into chaos. Her shark bait, a 13-inch mullet her sister had cast-netted the night before, had been sitting quietly behind the family’s boat in about 20 feet of water while the rest of the crew fished for sheepshead. Within seconds of the strike, the reel began screaming. Ella had hooked something big. Very big. And it was running.
The rod bowed violently as the line peeled off the reel. In a matter of seconds the fish ripped nearly 100 feet of 80-pound SpiderWire from the spool. The crew scrambled. Ella’s father, grandfather, mother, and sister hurried to clear the deck — reeling in sheepshead rigs and pulling the trolling motor so they could get the boat moving.
No one knew what had taken the bait, but the sound of the reel said enough. It wasn’t small.
Ella had been fishing with gear that most anglers wouldn’t consider shark tackle: a medium-heavy rod paired with a 5000-series Sea Lion spinning reel spooled with 80-pound braid. The leader a Tackle Crafters Shark Rig with a 200-pound steel leader and 8/0 hook, was only thing serious enough for big fish, the rod and reel were not exactly designed for the kind of fish that had just eaten her bait. Still, Ella held on.
Her father kept a tight grip on the back of her life jacket as the fish surged away, making sure the determined young angler wouldn’t be pulled overboard. Letting go of the rod was never an option. Ella had come to Florida with one goal: to catch a fish bigger than she was.
As the boat finally got moving and began chasing the fish, the mystery creature continued heading toward deeper water. Before she could slow it down, the fish had dragged the 23-foot boat nearly three-quarters of a mile, pulling the family out of the sound and toward the Gulf of America.
Run after run threatened to empty the reel. At first the family wondered if it might be a Goliath Grouper. The fish seemed determined to reach deep water (a classic grouper move), but no one knew for sure. Ella simply kept repeating the same words over and over: “It’s bigger than me.”
The battle stretched on. For two hours the fish surged back and forth between deeper water and the edges of the sound. The rod creaked under the strain, the braid sliced the water like a guitar string, and the reel popped and groaned as if it might explode at any second. Ella refused to quit. Her father later said he was exhausted just from holding onto her and bracing against the pull of the fish, yet the young angler somehow kept reeling.
Finally, after two long hours, the fish surfaced far enough away for the crew to get their first glimpse. “Holy cow! That’s a shark!” someone shouted. From the distorted perspective through the water’s surface, it looked enormous—maybe 10 feet long. Then the shark saw the boat and another blistering run followed, sending another hundred feet of line screaming off the reel.
By now the fight had moved back toward the entrance of the sound, where boat traffic and wind were building rolling three-to-four-foot waves. Landing the fish suddenly seemed unlikely. The shark settled into deeper water, around 50 feet down, and the rod bent nearly double as Ella used the gunwale of the boat for leverage. Her father finally said what everyone was thinking. “Ella … I don’t know if we can land this fish.”
The look on her face said everything. There was anger, determination, and a little fear, but quitting wasn’t an option. “No,” she said. “We’ve worked this hard this long. Please, Dad, we have to get him in.” Her father nodded. “All right kid. Keep reeling.”
Not long after, the runs began getting shorter. The shark was tiring. When it finally surfaced near the boat, its identity became clear: a massive bull shark. Even exhausted, the shark still had plenty of power left. Timing the waves carefully, Ella’s father reached down and grabbed the steel leader. At the same moment, her grandfather Jeff leaned dangerously over the gunwale and managed to slip a tail rope around the shark. The instant the rope tightened, the shark exploded with one last burst of strength, but it was over. The rope held.
Cheers erupted from the boat, and from nearby anglers who had been watching the entire spectacle unfold. After more than three hours of fighting, the crew finally secured the fish alongside the boat: a 7-foot bull shark weighing well over 250 pounds, caught and landed by an eleven-year-old girl.
For anyone who knows Ella Griffioen, the catch wasn’t entirely surprising. Back home in Michigan, she spends nearly every spare minute outdoors. Most afternoons she drops her backpack on the porch after school and heads straight to the pond behind her house to fish. During deer season she’s often in a stand two hours before school and climbs back in again the moment she gets home. She has already passed on plenty of smaller deer while waiting patiently for a true trophy buck she’s been watching on trail cameras.
Winter brings trapping season, and Ella runs traplines with her dad targeting beaver, raccoon, otter, and fox. She has already begun learning the craft of taxidermy as well, mounting animals and tanning hides herself. It’s not unusual to find her working on a life-size beaver mount or fleshing a hide in the shop. The outdoors isn’t just something she enjoys, it’s her passion.
Part of the reason Ella wanted a shark so badly is because of the story she’s grown up hearing. At home, mounted on the wall, is a giant shark taken by her mother, who made history by becoming the first woman to shoot a blacktip shark with a bow and arrow. Ella proudly tells that story to anyone who will listen — teachers, friends, and classmates alike. On this trip to Florida, she wanted a story of her own.
Since landing the shark, Ella has spent time searching online trying to find another child her age who has landed a bull shark this large. So far, she hasn’t found one. While youth anglers catch sharks every year in Florida, documented catches of 7-foot bull sharks by anglers eleven years old or younger can’t be found, especially on spinning tackle of this size. Whether or not it becomes an official record, one thing is certain: on a calm morning in Gasparilla Sound, an 11-year-old girl proved that determination can outweigh experience and sometimes even the limitations of the gear in your hands.
The Women's Outdoor News, aka The WON, features news, reviews and stories about women who are shooting, hunting, fishing and actively engaging in outdoor adventure. This publication is for women, by women. View all posts by The WON
