Al Sullivan of Lebanon caught a 745-pound giant thresher shark off Kona, Hawaii, which could be a world record for that size fish using a 130-pound test line.

The previous world record was set off the coast of New Zealand in 1978, he said. That shark weighed 676 pounds.

Sullivan, 60, who owns Sullivan Construction, hooked the shark about 1:30 p.m. on Feb. 2, while fishing from his 39-foot-long boat, Illusions. He was trolling with down riggers, and he was using about a 7-pound live tuna for bait.

Sullivan did not report his catch until he returned to the mid-valley from his Hawaiian vacation.

"It was unusual to catch the shark during the day," he said. "There are lots of thresher sharks off of Kona, but they come out mostly at night."

Sullivan had been fishing on his boat since early morning, when he felt a big tug on his line.

"When we first hooked up, I didn't know what I had," he said. "I knew it was huge. I thought I had a monster marlin, but it never did jump, and they often do. I had a half-mile of line out twice."

It took Sullivan about an hour and 40 minutes to bring the fish to the boat.

"I didn't see what it was until it got close because it had stayed so deep," he said. "Once I saw it, I knew it was a shark, but I didn't know what kind until I saw the tail."

The thresher is known for slapping its tail at the water as it swims through a school of fish to stun them, Sullivan said. Then the shark turns around to gobble up the fish he has struck.

Back at the dock in Kona, the fish was strung up, weighed and measured. It was about 16.5-feet long.

The fish lost 20 pounds of weight, however, when the contents of its stomach spilled out. Consequently, the shark officially weighed 723 pounds for record-setting purposes.

Sullivan said he filled out all of the paperwork required to have the fish acknowledged as the largest caught on a 130-pound test line. He also sent off to officials 30 feet of his line, the leader and a photograph.

Once all of the shark's measurements were taken, the teeth were removed and a few steak-size pieces of meat were carved off. Sullivan plans to mount the teeth on a plaque for his home.

The teeth would join several fish he mounted previously: a blue-striped marlin, a spearfish, a mahi mahi and a tuna.

"It would be good to break a record that has been standing for 27 years," he said. "It wouldn't be my first record, though. I have set world records in Alaska and helped others achieve world records."

At one time, Sullivan was a fishing guide in Alaska.

Sullivan said he started fishing at about age 6, when his father, Evan, took him to Albany area sloughs and ponds and to Horseshoe Lake. The two fished for bass and blue gill.

He started sport fishing about 20 years ago. His biggest fish before the shark was a 667-pound blue marlin.

"Now I want to catch a thousand-pound marlin," he said. "They catch about one of them a year in Hawaiian waters. In 50 years, they've only caught 63 of them."