Outdoors

Credit the cross for his great catch?

By TERRY TOMALIN
Published November 3, 2006

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Carrie Pratt] Jack Vasilaros, comes out of the Spring Bayou after retrieving the cross at the 100th Epiphany on Jan. 6. Video: Watch Jack Vasilaros catch his first blue marlin Clearwater boy, 16, gets the cross (Jan. 6)

Jack Vasilaros wondered if the legend were true.

"I had always heard that if you find the Epiphany cross, you would have a year of good luck," the 16-year-old Clearwater Beach resident said.

Vasilaros, then a sophomore at Calvary Christian High, beat out 55 other boys on Jan. 6 to retrieve the sacred cross in the 100th annual celebration of Epiphany in Tarpon Springs.

The avid angler hoped his luck would hold once kingfish season rolled around.

"I love to fish," he said. "I get out every chance I can, but I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would catch a blue marlin right off our coast."

To be honest, Vasilaros was pretty far out - 84 miles, to be exact - when he hooked what was estimated to be a 650-pound billfish in September.

Most anglers spend their entire lives fishing local waters and never see blue marlin. The species is more likely found in tropical zones or the blue water of the deep Atlantic.

"When the thing hit, I couldn't believe it," he said. "Even with 60-pound test, it still took me two hours to bring it in."

Vasilaros didn't get a photograph of his catch of a lifetime, but his friend did shoot some video. (Check it out at www.tampabay.com.)

"I think catching the cross really did matter," he said. "I guess I should start going to church more often."

[Last modified November 3, 2006, 02:46:16]