Shark Fishing

Shark fishing off Looe Cornwall sheds a light on the origins of the Shark Angling Club of Great Britain.

Members of the Shark Angling Club of Great Britain (SACGB) including Brigadier John Caunter take to the water with rubby dubby - a fishy mixture - to bait and attract unsuspecting sharks. The SACGB was formed in Looe Cornwall in 1953 by the Brigadier who also served on the District Council. Sharks caught at the time include blue, porbeagle, thresher and mako sharks. The SACGB now operates a catch, tag and release policy.

Brigadier John Alan Lyde Caunter CBE MC trained at Sandhurst and served in India and in both the First and Second World Wars. As a prisoner of war in 1914 he escaped from Schwarmstedt prison camp to the Netherlands and went on to return to the Western Front and Turkey. During the Second World War he was a Desert Rat serving in the Fourth Armoured Brigade under Field Marshall Montgomery in North Africa. From 1952 to 1967 he was a district councillor and represented Great Britain on the Committee of the International Game Fish Association. He had books published about his experience as a German PoW and on shark angling. He hung up his fishing rod in 1981. His army nickname was Blood.