A Texas man reeled in a 964-pound tiger shark on Sunday, putting his team in the lead of a fishing tournament and almost sinking his boat, reported ABC-affiliate KTRK Tuesday.

Sergio Roque was competing in the 55th Annual Tackle Time Fishing Tournament when he hooked the shark. It took three hours and multiple people to reel it in.

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“It’s the hardest fight I’ve ever had in my life, the strongest one,” Roque said to KTRK. “When I first set the hook, and it pulled me straight across the back of the boat, pulled me straight to the corner and slammed my knees onto it.”

The tournament is hosted by the Texas City/La Marque Jaycees, a local community service group that holds fundraisers to fund youth programs and provide scholarships to students in the Texas City Independent School District.

Jaycees Vice President Sam Navarro told KHOU that the shark is one of the biggest the tournament has ever seen. The shark was recorded to be 85 percent to the state record of 520 pounds. Roque’s team is currently in first place in the tournament, which lasts until Sunday.

Other notable catches of the tournament included a 173-pound stingray and a 143-pound alligator gar. Various categories exist in the tournament, such as off-shore, on-shore and kids.

National Geographic listed that tiger sharks are “near threatened.” Their average life span in the wild has been recorded as being 15 or more years. Tiger sharks are second only to great white sharks in attacking people. As reported by the Florida Museum, tiger sharks carry out an average of 29 non-fatal, unprovoked attacks a year. Tiger sharks have been the leading source of shark attacks in Hawaii.

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In the past, tiger sharks have shown they will eat almost anything. These sharks have been identified as “vulnerable to fishing pressure” because of factors such as their slow growth rates, their sporadic reproduction and their vulnerability to being caught in various types of fishing gear, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

In the Atlantic Ocean, restrictions have been placed on recreational fishing of tiger sharks because they are part of a group that is overfished. However, other parts of the country have not implemented any restrictions in regards to tiger sharks.

Although the shark Roques caught Sunday put his team in first place at the competition, it is a smaller tiger shark — the weight of tiger sharks ranges from 850 to 1,400 pounds.

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