Saltwater Fishing photo
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By Joe Cermele

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Here’s one for the “enjoy it because it won’t happen again” file. According to the fishing reports page in Florida’s Sun Sentinel, 13-year-old Jake Hobbs was ballooning a live blue runner from the Deerfield Beach Fishing Pier the other day when he got a little surprise. What he thought was a big king mack stripping line off the reel at mach 2 turned out to be a 70-pound sailfish. Other anglers on the pier figured it out as soon as the sail took to the sky. Crowds gathered. Chaos ensued.

From the story:
The fight should have ended when the sailfish went around the end of the pier, which had been damaged by Hurricane Sandy and was closed for repairs. A gentleman who jumped over the fence — he was later banned from the pier — safely guided the fish around so Hobbs could fight it from the other side. His brother Luke, 9, also helped, lifting up other anglers’ fishing rods so Hobbs could go under them.

“He was a big help,” said Hobbs, an eighth-grader at Sawgrass Springs Middle School whose efforts had attracted a crowd. “The whole beach had stopped just to watch me land this fish.”

After about 45 minutes, Hobbs had the sailfish in the surf. He gave the fishing rod to his father, Keith, then he and his friend Drew Koelle ran off the pier and into the water to pull the exhausted fish onto the beach.

So my question, young Mr. Hobbs, is where are the photos? I combed the Net but, alas, no dice. That’s a catch and a story of a lifetime, so if you’re reading this, lets see the shots. I know you took some. Good job, my friend. Who needs a 34-foot Contender with twin 250s right?