Teenager Without Legs Matt Sechrist Catches 250 Pound Shark
Matt Sechrist, a teenager who was born without legs, managed to pull in a 250 pound lemon shark on Tuesday July 16 with the aid of two of his friends.
The 19-year-old was held in place by the two men whilst he hauled in the huge beast. The Clay County man, who made the catch off Vilano Beach, stated, “That’s a memory that I’ll be able to keep forever. That’s a special moment that I can use. Just one more thing on the resume of things that I’ve done.”
Despite his lack of legs, the 19-year-old has completed several incredible feats, such as skydiving, waterskiing, wrestling in middle school, plus he is looking forward to playing wheelchair basketball at college later this year.
Ed Parrish, a family friend, previously mentioned to Matt that he had caught the shark in the same location, and, after Sechrist registered an interest in catching one too, he helped to set it up.
David Sechrist, who works with Parrish and is Matt’s father, helped set up the catch too, and he stated, “I was like, ‘If you think so. You know better than I do.’ He put in a lot of leg work to make this happen.”
Parrish baited the lemon shark several hundred feet off the beach whilst on the sand he set up several rods that were fitted with a bait click that made a loud noise when the fish took hold.
Once the shark took the bait, Sechrist spent an hour dragging it in. Parrish noted, “We strapped his dad to it first and let him wear [the shark] down a bit. I’ve got an extra large fighting harness, which we strapped around the wheelchair.”
As Sechrist attempted to pull in the shark, he placed the brakes on his wheelchair, whilst two of friends held him back, and after a while the shark became tired which allowed him to completely reel it in, where the group then took pictures.
