When Ian Atherton traveled across the pond from his home in Fleetwood, England to Florida's Space Coast for an April vacation, one of the things he had on his bucket list was to catch a shark. He had always envisioned what it would be like to tangle man-to-fish with one of the ocean's most fearsome apex predators.

How's that saying go about best laid plans?

Atherton was able to catch and release a giant seagoing fish, only it wasn't a shark, but a distant cousin and something much rarer — and some might say cooler — than a shark.

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What in the world?

Atherton joined Capt. Jon Cangianella of Fin & Fly charters in Cocoa Beach April 9 for a morning half-day to begin with shark fishing, then to try to catch some of the other popular fishing targets in the nearshore waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

Cangianella steered Atherton out from Port Canaveral to a spot in about 35 feet of water a few miles from the inlet. He deployed a chunk of bluefish, an oily fish which draws in sharks from a large distance once the scent of the fish gets into the ocean's currents.

Soon, there was a bite. Right away, line began peeling off the reel — not fast, but steady and strong. Atherton reeled tight to set the hook and began his battle on rod and reel. The tug of war went on for about an hour. As the fish drew close to the boat, Cangianella knew what Atherton had might not be a shark after all.

The rostrum, or saw, came out of the water. It resembles a hedge trimmer and on a large sawfish it can measure up to 4 or 5 feet in length. The fish uses it in the wild by swinging it back and forth through a school of small baitfish. A whack from the saw will stun a small fish allowing the sawfish to pick it up from the bottom since it mouth is located on the underside of the large fish. They also eat crustaceans and other bottom dwelling organisms.

(editor：)