A Florida woman ended up hooking a potential record breaker using just a 20-pound line while fishing off St. Augustine. The fish is poised to break a 40-year-old record.
Yvonne Norman was fishing with her brother Will Van Duyn. The Florida woman opened up about the experience.
"It was just a few days before National Go Fishing Day when Will and I headed offshore," Norman told Outdoor Life. "We had lots of live baits in our bait well and put out a couple wire-leader trolling rigs for kingfish."
Norman revealed that sharks were an issue while she was fishing. In fact, she had thought she had hooked a shark at first when she hooked an African pompano.
"It stayed deep, and was really strong," she said. "It made about five or six runs, and it took me about 20 minutes to get it near the boat. When it came close I saw how silver it was and didn't really know what kind of fish it was."
Florida Woman Hooks Record Breaker
Just as she was starting to reel in the fish, the Florida woman said a bull shark tried to take her catch.
"I tried to get my fish to one side of our boat away from the bull shark, and Will was trying to gaff it and get it into our boat," Norman said. "It was pretty wild there for a while. Will tried three times to gaff the fish before he hit it and hauled it aboard."
They finally pulled in the African pompano and realized how big the fish was.
"The whole thing was a miracle that I caught the fish and a shark didn't take it," the Florida woman said. "We looked up records for African pompano and realized it might be a record breaker."
Ultimately it proved to be a good time with even better results.
"I pray for good fishing all the time when we're out on the water," says Norman. "I think a guiding hand was with us that day because Will's kingfish trolling rods, reels and fishing line are 16 years old. I'm glad he takes such good care of his tackle."
