Houston teen reels in huge fish on Make-A-Wish trip to Hawaii

A Houston teenager on a Make-a-Wish trip to Hawaii is back at home after snagging some media attention along with a huge fish.

Sterling Ellis, 19, returned to Houston Wednesday morning from a trip to Hawaii, where he caught a 759-pound marlin.

He made the six-day trip with his mother, Tammy Colon, and a friend.

The catch came Sunday on a deep-sea fishing trip about 15 miles off Honolulu, Ellis said.

"We had put (our poles) up early in the morning and were just relaxing," he said.

When Ellis' line started reeling out fast, the boat captain anchored his pole to a chair where Ellis worked for about an hour to bring in the catch.

"He told me to play with it - let it go, wait a while and come back," Ellis said. "It was pretty intense."

It took four men - Ellis, his friend, the boat captain and a helper - to bring the 11-foot fish on board. Not a bad haul, considering that Ellis hadn't been deep-sea fishing since he was about 5 years old.

As a memento, he got to keep the nose of the fish, which measures nearly 3 feet.

The six-day trip, including the fishing expedition, was arranged and funded through the Make-A-Wish Foundation's Texas Gulf Coast & Louisiana chapter based in Houston, said wish coordinator Julie Baldwin.

Ellis was 18 when he was referred to the organization, which grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions.

A graduate of Cypress Lakes High School, Ellis said he was 17 years old when he was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma. He is scheduled to have a bone transplant sometime after May, when he turns 20.

"He wanted to travel, to take some kind of an exotic trip," Baldwin said. "One of the activities we scheduled for him through the chapter was deep-sea fishing. Obviously this is an above-average catch."