Middle-schooler catches big swordfish off Florida Keys

A middle school student caught a 360-pound swordfish early Thursday morning during a celebratory birthday fishing trip off the Florida Keys.

Jared Jillson, who turned 14 Friday, nabbed the big swordfish during a trip with his mother and father aboard the Main Attraction, skippered by Marty Lewis. The Vero Beach, Fla., family was fishing about 30 miles south of Marathon.

The fish bit a large dead squid and was hooked just before 2 p.m. Wednesday, said Jared's father Ed Jillson.

"We touched the leader five hours later," said Ed Jillson, owner of a data communications supply and service company. "That qualified it as a legal release, but we decided we wanted to take the fish."

The young Jilson would fight the fish, standing up and harnessed to the 80-pound-test class rod and reel, for another six hours until it was gaffed at 1:20 a.m. Thursday.

"I've been wanting to catch one (a swordfish) for quite a while, but I wasn't expecting it to be that big," said Jared Jillson, who caught his first sailfish at age 5 and has already caught blue marlin and even a black marlin. "The blue and black marlin didn't fight nearly as hard as the swordfish."

The younger Jillson said he never once thought about relinquishing the rod to someone else on the boat.

"I was thinking any minute it would turn it's head, and it would be all over and done," Jared Jillson said. "I would have stayed however long it took."

The father was impressed with his son's feat, but not completely surprised.

"He's a pretty big kid (6 feet tall) for his age and he plays football and baseball," said Ed Jillson. "But a lot if it is (angling) technique.

"Still, I was pretty amazed at his endurance and his stamina," he said. "I guess at his age he could do that, because (at 46) I couldn't."