Coye Price with the "monster" sturgeon.
A 9-year-old boy in Tennessee, USA reeled in a fish nearly as big as himself while on a fishing trip with his family. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency said Coye Price, 9, was fishing at Spencer Creek, on Old Hickory Lake, when he caught the massive sturgeon, which weighed in at a whopping 79.8 pounds or approximately 36 kgs.
Coye released the sturgeon back into water after weighing it and posing for a few photographs with it.
"This 9-year-old was on a quest to catch a bigger fish than what his sisters have reeled in, when he hooked this monster," the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency wrote on Facebook while sharing photos of Coye with his catch. In one photo, the fish appears to be almost as big as the boy.
"Coye had been saying, 'Man, I don't have nothing on these girls; I've got to catch a big fish,'" said Coye's father Chris to USA Today. "So not only did he catch a bigger fish than they had, but sturgeon are rare, which is the other cool part about it."
Since being shared on Tuesday, the photos have collected over 2,000 'likes' and hundreds of amazed comments.
"Awesome!!! You just caught a dinosaur," wrote one person in the comments section.
"Who weighed more? The fish or the boy?" another asked.
"Wow, what a catch....and he is only 9 years old!" a Facebook user remarked.
The lake sturgeon is one of three native sturgeon species found in Tennessee, according to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. A combination of over-fishing, habitat loss and construction of dams have resulted in a dramatic decline in their population. Regulations state that sturgeon have to be immediately released if they are caught.
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