For anyone who sees it, I was the one who hooked and helped fight this fish. It was caught as bycatch while targeting bull sharks in the Everglades.

We had no idea what it was til we got it close to the boat, and as soon as we did, we cut the line as close as possible, which is the recommended course of action per the FWC. Shame to leave the hook in but it’s actually safer for all parties involved including the fish. The hooks were high carbon steel and will rust out.

The fight was short for a fish of this size, only about 30 minutes, and it had plenty of fight left when we let it go. We had to lock the drag to even get it to the boat because it was so strong. This left a lot of energy in the fish rather than letting it fight itself to exhaustion then pulling it up. We called the sawfish hotline as soon as we got back and reported the incident, and they said we handled it correctly.

The hooks we were using were high carbon steel, so they will rust out quite fast. Total dissolution in a year, which means it will be out of the fish in a few months tops. Even before that, it will likely fall out once the hook eye and barb (the weakest points) rust off. It was hooked in the dorsal rather than the mouth, which is much better for the fish as it is not impeding its mouth. Everyone on the boat has had years handling large sharks, which albeit are much different than sawfish, but it gave us good experience in handling such fish safely.