Florida Shark Fishing Trip Leads to a Very Rare Catch

A man from Fleetwood, England tried to cross something off his bucket list when he traveled to Florida in an attempt to catch a shark, but instead, he ended up with something much more amazing on the other end of his line.

On April 9, Ian Atherton joined Capt. Jon Cangianella of Fin & Fly charters in Cocoa Beach, Yahoo! News reported. While the morning kicked off in an attempt to go shark fishing, it ended with Atherton catching a distant cousin to the shark.

The charter went out from Port Canaveral to a spot in about 35 feet of water a few miles from the inlet. Atherton deployed a chunk of bluefish, which is an oily fish that normally draws in sharks from a distance.

Shortly afterward, Atherton felt a bite on his line and the line started peeling off the reel, strong and steady. It was then a tug of war for Atherton and his catch in the water, as they went back and forth for about an hour.

The fish finally got close to the boat, which is when Cangianella noticed Atherton might not be dealing with a shark.

This is when the rostrum, or saw, came out of the water and Cangianella realized there was a sawfish on the line. The rostrum resembles a hedge trimmer and on a large sawfish, it can measure up to 4 or 5 feet in length, Yahoo! News stated.

While the sawfish is closely related to stingrays and not so much sharks, they are sometimes caught using the same methods.

The number of sawfish has dwindled over time, so Cangianella was able to free the sawfish from the hook without removing it from the water, and then the sawfish swam off healthy and strong.

The sawfish can become easily entangled in fishing nets used by commercial fishers, which is what has caused the population decline since the early 1900s. They were the first marine fish species listed as endangered in 2003 under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, Yahoo! News reported.

After releasing the sawfish back into the waters, the charter set out for another spot and used different bait. Atherton was able to land a few king mackerel, but his dream of catching a shark did not come through for him. However, we are thinking catching a rare sawfish might be just as cool.