A Florida fisherman changed his luck recently in a big way.

Captain Jose Rodriguez Jr. of Cudjoe Key, Florida, takes clients out four to five times a week on a Florida Keys fishing charter to reel in trophy fish. But he’d never come close to catching a monster 500-pound swordfish.

On Feb. 18, Rodriguez, along with a Pennsylvania family, landed a giant 480-pound swordfish, one of the largest of its kind caught in the Keys in recent years.

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“It was definitely a fight and a struggle,” Rodriguez, who helps run the family business, Above & Below Fishing Adventures, told Fox News Digital in an interview.

“We fought the fish for five hours, and it took us at least another half hour to control the fish on the side of the boat before we could pull it over the side,” he said.

The Florida Keys are known for drawing in large species like swordfish, but landing one of this size requires specialized deep-sea techniques and is considered quite rare.

“Everyone’s in search of a nickel, which is 500 pounds, but it rarely happens in the Keys,” said Rodriguez, 25.

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When he started the fishing trip, it seemed like a “normal” day, he said. A Pennsylvania couple had chartered the boat to celebrate their son’s high school graduation.

As Rodriguez first spotted the swordfish, he knew it was large, but he wasn’t sure how massive it would be.

“Then my mate and I got a really good eye on it, and we basically sealed the deal,” he said.

At first, the Pennsylvania family didn’t realize the importance of what was happening, he said. But the two children aboard were big supporters.

Once the swordfish was caught, there was plenty of work to be done. For starters, there was no simple way to store a fish that huge.

“A fish that big actually lies on the back deck with ice bags on top of it with towels,” Rodriguez said. “There’s really no other spot” for it.

Then he and his mate sprayed it with saltwater to bring the core temperature down.

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When they were ready to filet the fish, they completed the process on the boat. 

They didn’t have a crane to lift the fish.

“Not everyone’s prepared to catch a 500-pound fish,” the captain said.

Only a few such accomplishments have been documented in the last decade, according to available material.

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In 2019, Captain Nick Stanczyk landed a legendary 757.8-pound broadbill off Islamorada, marking one of the largest recreational swordfish ever caught in the U.S., as noted by Pelagic Gear.

In 2018, Patrick Vincent, along with Captain Stanczyk, caught a massive 600-pound swordfish off Islamorada, as Wild Open Spaces reported.

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In terms of Rodriguez’s catch, there were about 50–70 people in his community who came to admire the fish. 

“We had well over 200 pounds of meat to use,” he said.

The Pennsylvania family only took 20-30 pounds of it. 

They decided to donate the rest of the fish to people in the town.

“The whole community was eating swordfish that day,” Rodriguez said, chuckling.

When asked if he felt like a local celebrity, he said, “Almost, yeah. Everybody knows about it. … It’s just about being in the right place at the right time, and it ended up happening to me.”

Podcaster Joe Rogan spoke with comedian and libertarian podcaster Dave Smith Thursday about how the historic coalition President Donald Trump united has fractured after broken promises on policy.

Over the past year, numerous podcasters who gave friendly interviews with Trump or outright endorsed him have since called out his administration, accusing it of betraying key policy promises to Trump’s voters. 

Smith, who is Jewish, has been a frequent critic of Israel and its influence on American foreign policy. 

The comedian marveled in particular at how, after decades of wars in the Middle East that have not benefited Americans, the very presidential candidate who ran on preventing similar conflicts would be the one to start a new one with Iran.

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“That was the one thing that he was saying that was so promising to so many people that were independent that were on the fence,” Rogan recalled. 

“They’re like, ‘This guy wants no wars. All right. Look, he wants closing the border, which I think is a great idea. He wants no wars. That’s enough. Let’s go.’”

Smith, recalling how he endorsed Trump in the past, said the Democratic alternative was “the party who bragged about, first off, insane woke s— like poisoning the minds of children in a really grotesque and abusive way. 

“They gave us open borders, flooding the country with people. They gave us all types of COVID tyranny based on pseudoscience. They gave us the most reckless foreign policy in American history, which was this proxy war on Russia’s border.”

The problem, he said, is that Trump squandering the historic coalition and mandate he won will deliver the country right back to the Democrats all over again. 

“After ’24, this coalition came together where Donald Trump, for the first time ever, wins the popular vote, wins every single swing state, and really more remarkably, won the youth and the culture,” Smith recalled, arguing Trump went from a cultural pariah to becoming a uniting figure.

“That whole coalition has been destroyed over this war,” he said. “And now he’s going to hand the country right back over to these Democrats who we’ve been fighting so hard. All for what? All for a war that Netanyahu wanted?”

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When Fox News Digital contacted the White House, a spokesman replied, “What matters most to the American people is having a commander in chief who takes decisive action to eliminate threats and keep them safe, which is exactly what President Trump is doing with the ongoing successful Operation Epic Fury.

“President Trump campaigned proudly on his promise to deny the Iranian regime the ability to develop a nuclear weapon, which is what this noble operation is seeking to accomplish. The President does not make these incredibly important national security decisions based on fluid opinion polls, but on the best interest of the American people.” 

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Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss is eligible for a sixth season of college football after a Mississippi judge denied an NCAA appeal.

The NCAA formally rejected his request for a sixth year of eligibility Jan. 9 because he and his team could not provide evidence he had an “incapacitating injury or illness” when he did not play for Division II Ferris State in 2022 because of apparent respiratory issues.

Chambliss then sued the NCAA, and a judge ruled last month that the NCAA “operated in bad faith” by trying to keep Chambliss ineligible for next season, a decision the NCAA appealed.

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The NCAA argued Chambliss “exhausted his eligibility” to play Division I football since he had already played four seasons in a five-year period.

Ole Miss came within a quarter of advancing to the College Football Playoff championship game, losing a 31-27 thriller to Miami in the Fiesta Bowl Jan. 8. 

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The Rebels’ postseason was mired in controversy when Lane Kiffin opted to take the LSU head coaching job. Athletic director Keith Carter said Kiffin would not be able to coach the team in the playoffs if he left, resulting in a he-said, he-said between Kiffin and players about how the breakup went down in the locker room.

However, several coaches, including offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr., went back and forth between LSU and Ole Miss for the playoff games.

The Rebels and Tigers will meet in Week 3 in Oxford.

Fox News’ Jackson Thompson contributed to this report.

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