Catch continues

The Flagler Beach Pier continues to make news with its unusually high catch of king mackerel.

The latest angler to conquer a kingfish was 12-year-old James D’Esposito, who landed a 38-pound beauty from the end of the pier on Sunday.

James, who attends Belle Terre Elementary in Palm Coast, was disappointed he did not catch a king on his birthday proper (Saturday) and talked his father, Jim D’Esposito, into taking him back to the pier on Sunday.

Later that afternoon, James got the hit.

“James was very calm,” his father said. “You sit there and wait and wait. When the group hears a line going, because of the clicker on the reels, they yell ‘King on! King on!’ Those guys coached him the entire time. It was about a 30-minute fight.”

James not only caught a big king, but he likes to use vintage tackle. This fish was taken on a 1958 Penn Jigmaster reel.

What happened to the fish?

“We had dinner with it,” his father said. “We butchered it right there and James gave a lot of it away. We’ll probably go back Sunday. James wants to do it every possible chance he can get.”

For the record, James weighs 77 pounds, so the fish he caught was almost half his size.