| Captain Kevin Farner (right) and Eddie Lawrence celebrate before the release. Photo: Courtesy of Eddie Lawrence |
When Captain Kevin Farner and his fishing buddies headed about 30 miles west of St. Petersburg, Florida, it was sailfish or bust. Twenty minutes after a sail took Farner’s blue runner, they billed the fish and measured it at 93 inches long with a 30-inch girth before releasing it. Based on the standard girth-length formula, the Atlantic sail weighed just under 105 pounds, making it one of the largest ever caught in Florida waters. “I bet that fish weighed a buck-twenty,” said Eddie Lawrence, one of the crewmembers. “It could have been an all-tackle record.”
