12-Year-Old Captures Great White Shark Off the Coast of Port Everglades

A Massachusetts family visiting South Florida made the catch of a lifetime Tuesday morning.

It's a story 12-year-old Campbell Keenan will be telling for years to come.

"I was amazed," said Keenan. "I never thought I would catch a great white shark.”

The Keenan family and some friends went sport fishing Tuesday morning about a mile off the coast of Port Everglades with Fishing Headquarters and Captain Paul Paolucci.

"We knew it was something substantial because it pulled really good," said Paolucci. "It took a lot of line on the biggest rod we got."

"I honestly didn't really think we were going to catch anything," said Colleen Keenan, Campbell's mom.

They were mostly catching bait fish, but they had one big bait fish down in the water.

"Then all of a sudden, it went down a lot," said Campbell. "It just ran, darted. It went about 300 yards."

Everyone on board knew he caught something big. It took 45 minutes just to reel it close enough to see just what it was -- a great white shark.

"It was pretty chaotic," said Colleen. "They threw Campbell in the seat, put the reel between his legs, hooked him to the reel, but he wasn't hooked to anything. So my friend and I had to take turns holding on to Campbell to make sure he didn't fly out of the boat."

Campbell held strong and was able to reel the shark within about five feet of the boat.

"We actually tagged it and they named it, and it's like adopting a fish," said Paolucci. "Then they released it back into the water."

They named it "Jan Jan." A bit of an inside joke apparently with Campbell's sister's hockey coach, who was also on the boat.

They were all in South Florida for his sister's hockey tournament.

Captain Paolucci said it's pretty rare to hook a great white in the warm waters off Florida.

He's caught three in the last 20 years. His first mate, David, who has been doing this for 15 years, hadn't caught one until Tuesday.

Campbell and his family are now back home in New England. His arm is a little sore.

"It really hurt my arm or my hand because I had to hold on really tight," Campbell said.

But he has the coolest photo and video reel to back up his story.