Brooklyn Teen Makes Catch Of A Lifetime While On Hawaiian Vacation

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – It was a battle on the open seas as a teenager from Brooklyn took on the catch of a lifetime.

"I saw him jump up and he says, 'Big fish, Kai let's go!'" 16-year-old Kai Rizzuto told CBS2's Cindy Hsu from his vacation in Hawaii.

Rizzuto and his family were fishing off the big island Wednesday when suddenly he snagged something big—an 11-foot blue marlin.

"I get up, we run out there, I see the fish tail walking on the surface going crazy and then it just starts to run," he said. "It's jumping back and forth like you see in the video. I'm talking like full breaches...it was really quite beautiful," he said.

"It was a tough fight, probably one of the hardest 30 minutes I've ever experienced in my life," Rizzuto added.

Finally, Rizzuto started to pull it onto the boat, but they hadn't won the fight yet.

"I've heard stories my grandfather has told or written about guys who have gotten the marlin up to the side and a shark comes and takes the back half," Rizzuto said.

Luckily, it didn't become shark bait. Once on land, they weighed the fish at a whopping 1,058 pounds.

The fish died during the fight but didn't go to waste; it fed about 100 people.

"Knowing that the marlin we caught is going to be feeding many, many people here in Kona is more than enough satisfaction for us," he said.

According to Marlin Magazine, Kai's haul was was 502 pounds shy of being the largest marlin ever caught.