Captain hauls in nearly 500-pound sea giant after grueling battle, feeds most of town

A Florida fisherman changed his luck recently in a big way.

But he'd never come close to catching a monster 500-pound swordfish.

"It was definitely a fight and a struggle," Rodriguez, who helps run the family business, Above & Below Fishing Adventures, told Fox News Digital in an interview.

"Everyone's in search of a nickel, which is 500 pounds, but it rarely happens in the Keys," said Rodriguez, 25.

As Rodriguez first spotted the swordfish, he knew it was large, but he wasn't sure how massive it would be.

"Then my mate and I got a really good eye on it, and we basically sealed the deal," he said.

Once the swordfish was caught, there was plenty of work to be done. For starters, there was no simple way to store a fish that huge.

"A fish that big actually lies on the back deck with ice bags on top of it with towels," Rodriguez said. "There's really no other spot" for it.

When they were ready to filet the fish, they completed the process on the boat. 

They didn't have a crane to lift the fish.

Only a few such accomplishments have been documented in the last decade, according to available material.

In 2019, Captain Nick Stanczyk landed a legendary 757.8-pound broadbill off Islamorada, one of the largest recreational swordfish ever caught in the U.S., Pelagic Gear noted.

In 2018, Patrick Vincent, along with Captain Stanczyk, caught a massive 600-pound swordfish off Islamorada, Wild Open Spaces reported.

"We had well over 200 pounds of meat to use," he said.

The Pennsylvania family took 20-30 pounds of it. 

The family decided to donate the rest to people in the town.

"The whole community was eating swordfish that day," Rodriguez said, chuckling.