A father and son team from North Carolina will have a story to tell, and the North Carolina record books will have a new entry to make after the pair of anglers hauled in 560-pound swordfish off the coast of the Tar Heel State late last month.
Michael Tickle, 38, and his son Kelson, 13, made the reportedly record-breaking catch on December 29, 60 miles east of their hometown of Beauford Inlet, North Carolina, according to Sport Fishing Magazine.
Though, the pair didn’t quite pull it off alone. They had assistance from Zach Grantham, a boatmate on the voyage. The effort to reel in the oceangoing monster reportedly took 5-and-a-half hours, Sport Fishing reports.
The huge fish is just the most recent capture of the highly sought-after sport species. Only four months ago, in September of 2022, the state of North Carolina certified a 504.8-pound swordfish as the new state record.
If the fish caught by the Michael and Kelson Tickle has been accurately weighed, the record set in September will be very short-lived.
Considering that most North Atlantic swordfish range from 50 to 200 pounds, both fish are incredibly impressive. Incredibly, though, neither fish weighs even half as much as the Guinness World Record holder. That swordfish, caught in Iquique, Chile, on May 7, 1953, weighed an unbelievable 1,182 pounds.