A 12-year-old boy nailed a scary yet super impressive catch while fishing off the South Florida coast: a great white shark!
WPLG said Cambell Keenan, of Boston, Massachusets, and his family were fishing with Fort Lauderdale Fishing Charters on Tuesday (January 17) when the shocking moment happened.
“It took out drag, and I was like, ‘Is this thing going to pull me in?’ Because I was just scared,” Cambell said. Luckily, Capt. Paul Palucci and David Jackson helped the boy reel in the huge beast, which took about 45 minutes. The 130-inch-long female shark weighed around 450 pounds.
“We had to hold onto him. We had to make sure he wasn’t going to go off the boat," Colleen Keenan, Cambell's mother, recounted to reporters. "He had to hold on to the reel, and he was strapped in and not really."
The fishermen tagged the apex predator before releasing it at 301 Seabreeze Blvd. For Cambell, it's a fishing experience he won't forget for a long time.
“The biggest fish that I ever caught before this was a 25-inch striper,” Cambell said.
Wildlife experts say North Atlantic great white sharks migrate to Florida in the winter, so keep an eye out for them if you're out on the ocean.