Two Jacksonville Beach students capped their summer by hooking an Atlantic sailfish in nearshore waters and competing in a youth kingfish tournament.

Henry Beenen and Asher Carlton, students at Colossal Academy in Jacksonville Beach, spent the summer aboard Jax Fishing Charters building their skills on the Intracoastal, St. Johns River and nearshore Atlantic waters, according to Captain Wayne Senteno's fishing column published Wednesday, Aug. 26, in the Beach Gazette.

One highlight came surprisingly close to shore. Beenen, Carlton and Senteno's wife, Kelly Senteno, hooked their first Atlantic sailfish during a nearshore trip.

"Watching a sailfish light up behind a bait and then launch from the water is something even experienced fishermen don't forget," Senteno wrote.

Carlton also placed in the youth division of a summer kingfish tournament, though Senteno's column did not name the specific event or his finishing position. Beenen, whom Senteno described as "already an experienced young fisherman," picked up a new technique for targeting redfish along the Intracoastal banks.

Beenen summed up the season in Senteno's column: "This summer's bite was hot! There were plenty of kingfish and tarpon along the beach."

The two teens are part of Colossal Academy's Fishing Captain Apprenticeship program. Students spend Wednesday mornings on the water with Senteno twice each month, according to Colossal Academy's website. The program covers safe boating, reading weather and water conditions, identifying bait, handling fish and respecting wildlife. Colossal Academy is an official Guy Harvey Conservation School.

Learn.Work.Launch, a Jacksonville Beach nonprofit focused on work-based learning for teens, supports the fishing captain program as its first partnership with the school.

Senteno wrote that kingfish and tarpon kept rods bent along the beach all summer, while redfish, flounder and trout provided steady inshore action. He noted that tarpon and kingfish remain around the beach and bait pods as the season shifts toward the fall mullet run, with redfish, flounder and trout still active inshore.

Senteno's column did not list upcoming tournament dates for the fall season.