Southampton boy describes reeling in 11-foot great white shark in Florida

SOUTHAMPTON, MA (WGGB/WSHM) - A 12-year-old boy from Southampton had the catch of a lifetime when he reeled in a great white shark while on vacation in Florida.

Campbell Keenan has returned home after quite the fishing experience in south Florida. The 12-year-old caught an 11-foot-long great white shark and his family shared pictures and video with Western Mass News.

“Yeah, it’s weird. It’s not really processing in my mind,” Keenan said.

Campbell spent 45 minutes reeling in the shark and another 20 minutes trying to get it off the line. His mom, Colleen, told Western Mass News that they were visiting Florida for her daughter’s hockey tournament when they decided to go on a charter fishing boat with two of their coaches. They helped hold Campbell in the chair while he was reeling, afraid the shark would pull him in.

“We were holding onto him, so he wouldn’t fly out of the boat and we were taking his jacket off because he was sweating, pouring Gatorade down his throat,” Colleen Keenan explained.

After pulling the shark close to the boat to tag it, Colleen said they finally got a good look.

You can watch more video of Campbell’s experience below:

“Seeing it was such a beautiful creature. It was upside down and when they are upside down, they are kind of a catatonic state, so it was just kind of floating there and it was all white under its belly,” Colleen Keenan added.

Since returning to Southampton, Campbell told us he’s had quite the response from friends and family

“They congratulated me and said that I should post stuff everywhere,” Campbell Keenan said.

Colleen showed us pictures from that day, which is one they will likely never forget.

Campbell’s mom said the captains of the boat are going to send Campbell a mold of the shark, so he can always remember the big catch.

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