'One crank at time': Young angler swoops up humongous amberjack

Jake Cordova got an early birthday present Tuesday.

The 15-year-old Texan, who will turn sweet 16 next week, landed the catch of a lifetime Tuesday while fishing aboard the Swoop II with Capt. Matt Wheeler.

"I was expecting to catch some fish and have a good time," Cordova said when he signed up for the eight-hour fishing trip out of HarborWalk Village.

However, catching a 112.3-pound amberjack never crossed his mind.

"When it hit the line we all thought it was a shark. The mates said it wasn’t, by the way it was movin' in the water," Cordova said.

"I had him on for 45 minutes and looked down and realized I was almost out of line," he said.

"I caught him in 100 foot of water and he had been taking line the whole time.  I was worried that I was going to loose him.  At the end I strapped on a belt and just worked him to the boat one crank at a time."

Fellow Texan Eddie Flores was right next to Cordova on the boat and stayed right there with him until it surfaced.

"We were all in awe of what we were seeing," Flores said. "An amberjack that huge … I have caught my fair share of big fish. Glad Jake was the one that got him on. Unbelievable."