Sjay Tilton was in Flagler Beach on Monday trying to catch some king mackerel.

When something much larger hit his friend's line, he knew something was up.

"My buddy's rod went off, and he didn't want to fight it, so he gave it to me," Tilton said Tuesday afternoon.

Tilton, a 14-year-old from Bunnell, hauled in the 7-foot-long nurse shark just south of the Flagler Beach Pier — a popular fishing and surfing location for locals.

Nurse sharks are slow-moving bottom-dwellers and, for the most part, are harmless to humans.

After the teen hooked the shark around 6:35 p.m. Monday, Tilton and a few other beachgoers unhooked the shark and released it back into the Atlantic after a few pictures and videos were taken.