A young girl has broken a record in Maryland’s Eastern Shore after a fishing trip she took with her father and close family friends. The 65-pound girl managed to reel in a massive fish by herself.
Young Emma Zajdel, from Ocean City, went on a fishing trip with her friend Ashton Clarke, and her dad Ed on June 30. They had been fishing for the day and were returning to the shore when they realized they had some bait left in Ed’s boat.
Emma along with her friend Ashton decided to fish for some bluefin tuna, and it was near Maryland’s Eastern Shore were Emma’s line started rambling and then going tight. The girl explains, she used her ‘fishing belt’ to gain more strength.
The nine-year-old girl managed to fight the 94-pound fish for twenty minutes. Meanwhile, her friend Ashton stood there to help her, and her father had the boat in gear so the line could stay tight.
Several minutes after, everyone on the boat helped to get the large fish and managed to stay in control by putting it in a fish box.
“At first, we thought it was a shark, and the line was going out over the side,” said little Emma Zajdel to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources
They left the fish overnight at Ed’s car, and it wasn’t until the next day, that Ed’s friends convinced them to weigh the fish and call state wildlife and perform a certified measurement. A spokesman for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources told the Washington Post, they had cached a large fish and “knew what they were doing.”
It turned out Emma, who measured only 52 inches, had caught a 66.5 inch and 94.6 pound Cobia fish, that weighs 30 pounds more than her. Not only the nine-year-old caught a gigantic fish, but she set a new record.
The previous record belonged to a man who caught a 79 pound Cobia fish two years ago. It is also very likely that Emma breaks the record of the International Game Fish Association, for a fish caught by an angler under the age of ten.
Emma’s big catch has caught the attention of local media and wildlife officials. According to statements from her dad she’s still excited to go fishing and to catch smaller fish. As for the attention, she has received Emma thinks it’s “cool.”
Source: Washington Post