Cody Martin, 16, was looking for a fish to catch on Thursday morning.
Perhaps a shark or a bat ray that he could later release into the ocean. He wanted to show the kids at the Roundhouse Aquarium’s summer camp – run by his father, Roundhouse Director Eric Martin – a live fish from off the pier.
So when his friend thought she saw something through her binoculars at about 10 a.m. off the pier, he was intrigued.
“Let me see,” he said, grabbing the binoculars. He peered through. It’s just a buoy, he thought.
But 20 minutes later, he saw something moving again, about 100 yards off the pier.
“I saw the black top of the head, I was like, ‘It’s a thresher shark!’ because it had a narrow top of the head,” Cody said.
It looked injured. He figured dolphins had been playing with it. So naturally, his instincts were to help. “I’m sprinting down to pier to get my surfboard and my suit on and go out there and go try to save it,” Cody said. “Me and my dad are always the first people to go run into any situation like that.”
Once Cody paddled out toward the animal, he heard his father yell, “Cody, it’s a yellowtail!”
That’s neat, he said to himself, assuming it would be a small fish.
“I get out there and this thing is just gigantic,” Cody recalled, shocked to see such a huge yellowtail so close to the pier. “Yellowtail have been overfished for so many years out here.”
Realizing that yellowtail would die regardless of whether he tried to catch it, Cody grabbed it with one hand, prompting the fish to try to squirm away. “The dolphins left and this guy popped up,” Eric said, of the injured animal.
After a brief wrestle, Cody pulled the fish out of the water, laying the 40-pound fish flat on his surfboard. He subsequently paddled back toward the pier, where a crowd had gathered to watch.
Eric then threw down a long rope and pulled the fish up to the pier after Cody tied the rope through its gills. Cody quickly paddled to shore, once again sprinting up the pier to see his catch.
“Oh my gosh, it’s really that big,” he said, pausing briefly to lament the scrapes on his knuckles.
“I’ve been fishing out here 10 years…I know guys out here who’ve never seen a fish this big,” Cody said. “Ever.”
Upon cleaning the fish, Cody discovered it had an inflated bladder.
“I’ve caught every fish you can possibly catch off this pier,” Cody said. Bat rays, sharks and barracuda – but never a yellow tail. “I’m kind of excited to be one of those people now.”
[scrollGallery id=”434″]Photos by Lauren Hagedorn
Eric noted the catch turned into an educational experience for the children at summer camp. “It was the first time the kids got to see a fish that big,” he said, adding that he was able to explain the dolphin’s feeding habits.
Cody’s mom, Dawn Martin, spent the morning snapping pictures with her camera. “It’s a fish story no one’s going to believe.”
