HARTFORD, Conn. — When most people think of sharks, their minds go to deep-sea expeditions or the movie "Jaws." But for two Connecticut fishermen, it became a real-life experience on a small boat in Long Island Sound.

Ed Lovely and Moe Giovanni, friends and experienced anglers, embarked on their first fishing trip together during the last week of July aboard Lovely’s 16 and a half-foot boat. Lovely had set out hoping to catch a shark, but neither he nor Giovanni expected what happened next.

“I was hand feeding the line out, I got down to 45 or 50 feet and boom, I tell Moe boom something just hit and bang zoom it started spooling us,” Lovely said.

That moment, around 3 p.m., marked the beginning of a six-hour battle between the two men and what they eventually discovered was a massive th

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