a huge pez espada was captured in the sea off the west coast of Florida.
The person in charge of removing it from the water was a young captain, who manages a service company. fishing and he was walking a family.
Only a few have been recorded pieces of this caliber in the last decade, and the clients decided to give it a special purpose.
«Without a doubt it was a battle”: this is how they captured the 217 kilo swordfish
The captain José Rodríguez, 25 years old, lives in the island town of Cudjoe KeyFlorida, where he helps run the family business, Above & Below Fishing Adventures, a company that offers services fishing.
According to New York Post, Rodríguez, four to five times a week, takes clients on boat fishing excursions around the Florida Keys.
On February 18, a couple from Pennsylvaniawith the goal of celebrating your child’s graduation from high school, hired the captain’s company. Although they expected to catch some big fish, they never imagined the size they would get.
The bulk of the trip was normal, but, when the time was up, they decided to go «one more lap», hoping to catch the best piece.
That’s when one of the fishing line buoys sank sharply.
Given this, Rodríguez became attentive and managed to spot a swordfishbut I wasn’t sure how huge it would be.
However, he soon realized that the animal that had taken the bait was very large, and, together with his co-worker, they set about carrying out the titanic task of removing it.
The details of this moment were told by Rodríguez himself, later, in a interview con Fox News Digital.
“We fought with the fish for five hoursand it took us at least another half hour to check him on the side of the boat before we could get him on board. «It was certainly a battle.» said.
The Florida Keys are known for attracting large species like swordfish, but catching one of this caliber requires specialized deep-water fishing techniques and is considered rare.
“Everyone is looking for a nickel, which is 500 pounds, but it rarely happens in the Keys,” Rodríguez explained.
The Pennsylvania family, at the time, did not understand the magnitude of what was happening.
But after the men brought the fish into the boat, everyone was shocked by the size of the fish.
When the captain proceeded to weigh him, widespread astonishment once again occurred, since the scale showed the figure of 480 pounds (about 217 kilograms.)
After that, fishermen began to think about how to store such a large fish.
Finally, they placed it on the back deck, covered with ice packs and towels, to keep it cool.
Other huge fish and the fate of the 217 kilo specimen
According to the information available, only a few fish of this size have been documented in the last decade.
In 2018, Patrick Vincent, along with Captain Nick Stanczyk, caught a huge swordfish from 600 pounds off the coast of Islamorada, as reported Wild Open Spaces.
In 2019, the same captain caught a swordfish from 757.8 poundsalso on the banks of Islamorada. This specimen is one of the largest recreational swordfish ever caught in the United States, he said. Pelagic Gear.
However, beyond the dimensions, what made the fish caught by Rodríguez special was its destination.
After the fishermen came ashore, between 50 and 70 people from the Cudjoe Key community came to see the fish.
At that time, it was already filleted, and, according to the captain himself, the edible part weighed around 200 pounds.
Even though the Pennsylvania family could have fed themselves for a long time with those amounts, they chose to keep only about 30 pounds and the rest he donated to the town of Cudjoe Key, whose inhabitants tasted it that same day.
“The whole community was eating swordfish,” Rodríguez told Fox News Digital.
When asked if he felt like he was a local celebrity, he responded: “Almost, yes. Everyone knows that… It’s just a matter of being in the right place at the right time, and in the end it was my turn. “Not everyone is prepared to catch a 500-pound fish.”
