A couple of years back, there was a story circulating around Southern California that an angler had caught a wahoo by the bait receiver in Los Alamitos Bay. If you’re familiar with this fish, you know that typically it’s caught much further south in warmer waters. I thought the story was a hoax until recently when I met an angler who told me it was his dad who caught the wahoo and had the picture to prove it.

Recently, another seemingly unbelievable tale of an exotic catch in a canal off Cape Cod has surfaced. Don’t believe it? Check out the amazing pictures and video in the following story posted in On the Water.

PacificSailfish-300x160“They thought it was a shark at first, so they cast back out and hooked up. It was hanging around in between the pilings, which is even more strange,” Mike told us when we called him later that morning.

At about 7pm Wednesday night, Mike also added to his Facebook page:

“I should also point out they tried to revive the fish but it did not survive. The fish ended up having the braid wrapped around his tail cutting deep into the front of the tail area. fish was caught on a custom rod/Shimano Baitrunner reel 50 lb braid and a Storm Blue Herring swim bait lure. anglers name withheld for now.”

Whether this fish was a white marlin, sailfish or some kind of other billfish was widely debated over the last 24 hours. White marlin have been caught recently in areas just a few miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, but the visible dorsal fin on the back half of the fish shown in the first two photos released Wednesday morning suggested that it could have been a sailfish.

Photos: On the Water