The scene where Quint is sitting in the stern, looking out at the ocean, and nibbling on a cookie. Something takes a huge amount of line. Quint thinks it’s the shark; Hooper thinks it’s a marlin or a stingray.
Who was right?
Certainly wasn’t a Stingray, so I’d have to trust Quint’s guess after hearing that ludicrous statement.
Spoiler: Watch the end of the movie.
Probably Hooper in a general sense. Quint was based on the guy who probably caught the largest shark/any fish on hook and line in history That weight might be an overestimate, as I’m not sure I trust that scale. Still, that was a mighty big fish.
The Jaws shark would have been almost twice that size. It probably would have spooled the reel pretty fast.
Moderating:
As this thread pertains to the film Jaws, I’m moving it to Cafe Society. I’ll also make the title a little less opague.
Game fish? Marlin? Stingray? Bit through that piano wire ? Don’t tell Quint his business.
Okay, am I the only one repulsed by the tale of a guy stalking and slowly torturing to death a large animal for fun? It is really too bad that his story didn’t end like Quint’s.
Or try to substitute his hardtack with a cookie!
What exactly is a 25 foot shark doing at the end of the line to meet the reel go “tick…tick…tick…”?
The sort of shark that has its own theme tune and a sense of dramtic…
timing.
Right. The OP’s question was answered in the movie itself by this line. Hooper admitted he was wrong by his silence to it.
Some sharks, including the white shark, sometimes attack prey with a bump-and-bite move. They will circle the prey, bump into it and then bite it. So the end of the line being bumped could cause the tick tick.
Quint and Hooper were both wrong about one thing; this wasn’t a kind of shark either of them had any previous experience with. The novice Brody was the only one who could imagine a shark with a vendetta.
I’m not a fan of that either.
If I recall correctly, when the two guys are fishing off the jetty (with the joint of meat and inner-tube) then the initial bites were also very tentative before the shark takes it fully and runs with it.
(we assume it was the shark seeing as we don’t get a view of it but it does break the jetty off and take it out to sea)
What vendetta? That was Jaws 2 where Brody thought the shark was there for revenge for the death of Bruce.
Yes, the inner tube was pulled down a few inches twice, then was pulled out to sea.
Well, that shark got Bruce’s theme music, so it’s a trademark/copyright violation if it wasn’t him. 
And if it does indeed end up in litigation then Bruce is very well placed to handle it!
(note to those unaware, “Bruce” the animatronic shark was so named after Spielberg’s lawyer at the time)
Small fish on the hook initially
Bruce comes in second, attracted by the signals of the struggling fish, sweeps through and severs the piano wire while inhaling the hooked fish
Similar sequence in the book
“This wire’s been chewed clean through. One try. No hesitation. No other marks on it. The fish probably didn’t even know he had it in his mouth. He just sucked the bait in and closed his mouth and that did it.” That’s why Quint figured (in the book) it was a White that took the line, not a regular shark.
It is really sad what this movie did to sharks in the wild. When this movie came out, there was a sort of open season for sharks, where millions of sharks were killed. Including sharks that never attack humans. I remember when I lived in Hong Kong in the '90’s. There was one year when there was several people killed from shark attacks. It was most likely a Tiger or a Bull shark, but I remember how a fisherman caught a huge shark and claimed that he had caught the man killer. The dead shark in the picture was a whale shark. The most gentle giant of the sea. Doesn’t even have teeth!
Anyway, the Great White shark is mostly dangerous to surfers because they feed mainly on seals. And a surfer wading out to catch a wave, looks a lot like a seal from under the water. After the first bite, they usually let go if it’s not a seal. So, you get more survivors from a Great White. Horrible injuries for sure, but you simply don’t taste right. No, the main culprits are the Tigers and the Bull sharks close to shore. And Oceanic White Tip Sharks out to sea. (This shark reportedly killed 100’s of US sailors of the USS Indianapolis after it was sunk by Japanese torpedoes). A handful of other sharks have caused injuries or death, but few and far in between. Tigers and Bulls are the real culprits.