When he saw a companion on his boat hook a giant fish during a sea angling contest, Ian Card was delighted.
Next second, the scene of triumph turned to horror - as the 14ft blue marlin leapt out of the water across the vessel and speared Mr Card through the chest with its spiked bill.
The impact of the 800lb fish knocked him overboard into the Atlantic off Bermuda.
Then, with a thrash of its tail and with the 32-year-old still impaled and bleeding profusely, it dragged him underwater.
Terribly injured, he somehow stayed conscious as he struggled to pull himself free of the marlin's 3ft razor-sharp spike before he drowned.
Finally, he wrenched himself away and was rescued by his companions on the boat - who included his 58-year-old father Alan.
Yesterday, he told how his son surfaced with blood pumping from his wound. 'He put his hand up to his chest and his fingers disappeared,' he said. 'He had a wound about as big as your fist.' Mr Card was rushed to hospital, where sur- geons carried out an emergency operation and yesterday he was in a stable condition.
But doctors told him that if the marlin's spike had struck a fraction of an inch higher, it would have severed an artery and killed him.
