A bait shop in Middlesex County sold a fateful bucket of chum Sunday to a trio of fishermen who went on to snag a 510-pound thresher shark off Sandy Hook.

An employee for Dockside Bait and Tackle in the Sewaren section of Woodbridge said the catch is a store record, though it does fall short of the New Jersey state record for threshers.

That still belongs to Bennett Fogelberg, who caught a 683-pound thresher shark in 2009, in the fishing area known as "The Fingers" according to the state Division of Fish and Wildlife.

Before that, in 2002, Jorge Pacheco caught a 589-pound thresher shark aboard Double Connection out of Shark River.

As reported by SILive.com, the three New York fishing buddies, 27-year-old Joseph Egitto, 42-year-old Pat Salvato and 25-year-old Frank Pomponio are members of the Staten Island Fishing Club, and had been catching sharks this summer before the big catch on Sunday.

The same report said the shark measured up at 510 pounds and 94 inches long (nearly 8 feet).

Egitto, who also drives the boat, said it took the three men three hours of fighting with the shark, taking turns harnessing themselves to the fishing rod, before they landed him.

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