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"It was a fight; it really was," said Dr. Stephen Lieson. "I had back spasms in the end."
Amy Dukes, a fisheries biologist with the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, said her agency will confirm whether the shark is a state record, but the process is basically a formality. Within the next few weeks, the shark will be checked by a state biologist and weighed on a certified scale, she said.
The current record lemon shark is 370 pounds, held by R.L. Price of Charleston, according to the DNR website.
Lieson, who's spending the week at Sea Pines Plantation, is an avid fisherman, previously snagging sharks, marlin, sailfish and dolphin. But he never expected to catch what he now calls "the fish of a lifetime."
He was on the boat of captain Chip Michalove, owner of Outcast Sport Fishing Charters on Hilton Head, at about 4 p.m. off Port Royal Plantation when the shark took the bait.
They had stayed within a half-mile from shore in Port Royal Sound, Michalove said, not venturing farther because of choppy waters.
"That was the first shark we hit," Michalove said. "And I thought it was a big one, but I just didn't know how big until we pulled it up on the side of the boat. I immediately thought it was a state record."
This is the second time a fisherman on Michalove's boat has caught a state record shark. Daniel Rowe of Tennessee landed a 163-pound blacktip shark last year. It, too, was caught in Port Royal Sound.
Michalove gave the Liesons two options: release the shark or take the state record. They chose the record.
"I'm thrilled to death," Lieson said Friday. "It's my first time fishing in South Carolina -- and I kind of like this state."
