A Florida man may have lost a pair of expensive sunglasses, but the reason was reward enough.
Stephen Rampersad, a firefighter in Milton, did his best to reel in the 400-pound grouper that he caught last week off the coast of Stuart, but his best forced him into the water briefly, the Pensacola News Journal reported. According to Rampersad, Capt. Ben Chancey of Chew On This Charters, asked if they wanted to go for one last catch when they hooked the Goliath fish.
"We were all done, and he (Ben) asked if I wanted to go one more time. We put two big baits on, 5- or 6-pound blue runners, and there you go," he told the Pensacola News Journal. “It was about a 25-30 minute fight. My wife dropped the phone when she saw me go in."
Lee Devine told the Pensacola News Journal that he helped to bring Rampersad back into the boat and they decided to name the catch, 'King of the Wreck.'
"I've never seen anything like that," he said. "We had the trip planned for months and the whole time he's telling me to watch out -- giving me heck because he's younger than me. And he turns out to be the one pulled off the boat."
The fish was weighed at 400 pounds with one casualty happening during the skirmish — Rampersad’s pair of Costa Del Mar sunglasses.
Rampersad's catch was impressive, but I doubt he can beat the 400-pound reel by another Florida man, who accomplished his catch by using a wrench.
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