Sam Gerson had no idea what he was in for when he woke up hours before dawn Monday to head to Cape Canaveral, Florida for a day out on a fishing charter. The group boarded the boat and headed out to open sea, passing the Kennedy Space Center on the way.
After a morning watching his friends catch cobia, kingfish and bonito, Gerson, a Florida-based doctor, decided to try some deep line fishing over a shipwreck site. "I dropped my line in and within seconds of hitting bottom, I felt a strong jerk. As I started reeling in, the rod bent until the tip was almost in the water. Soon I wasn’t reeling, but instead holding on for dear life as line was running out of the spool at an alarming speed," he told The Huffington Post.
Gerson and his friends spent an hour trying to reel in the mysterious animal. They wondered if it was a shark, a grouper, or if they were reeling up the entire shipwreck under their boat. After an hour of sweating, the fish broke the surface: a massive goliath grouper. Estimated by the fishing guide to be over 300 pounds and possibly more than 50 years old, Gerson and his friends quickly dubbed him "The Dinosaur."
Before letting the massive fish go, Gerson wanted a photo with his catch, so he jumped into the water for a snap. "I was able to swim along side this beautiful animal and even touch its huge scales. After a few minutes of this close encounter, it was time to cut the line and let our new friend return to his world, where he is the undisputed king. A few powerful strokes of the tail and he was gone."
We can only imagine the grin on the fisherman's face as he watched the fish swim away.
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