What a catch! SC anglers snag massive, over-sized fish. Check it out

The rain hurt. They could barely see. But Phillip Sullivan and James Strange were committed to reeling in the tarpon they snagged off the new Folly Beach Pier.

They knew it was dangerous, Sullivan said on his Facebook page, but they were going to fight harder than the fighting fish they had on the line, one of three they put out hoping for king mackerel..

Before long, they saw the silver fish.

“A monster,” Sullivan said.

“It starts jumping acrobatic-like, doing flips, goes towards the beach and starts running it,” Sullivan told the Charleston Post and Courier.

Sullivan held on as the fish swam from beach to the end of the pier, anxious to find freedom. Strange was down to the water, and Sullivan dropped the rod to him. Strange manhandled the fish, pushing it to shore.

An hour and a half later, they had the fish in hand — all four hands needed to pick up the fish they estimated at 150 pounds — 50 percent bigger than most silver tarpons found off the South Carolina coast.

“Pure insanity,” Strange said on Facebook. “Dodging lightning bolts so close we felt the hairs on our neck stand up.”

“What a catch,” Charleston County Parks tweeted along with a photo of the pair hoisting the fish while standing on the water.

People responded to the tweet asking whether you can eat them (yes but too many small bones and taste isn’t great) and what bait did they use (menhaden).

Sullivan said he waited to post the story on his Facebook page.

“I wanted to explain the feeling of it, but I can’t!” he wrote, adding, “It took a lot out of me.”

He said when they finally touched the fish he felt “an ocean of emotions.”

“My respect went even higher for this beautiful powerful fish!”

Then they released her. She slipped back into the sea, ready to fight another day.

“She swam off with grace! What a day, a day I will never forget!” Sullivan said.