Blue marlin jumps into boat of astonished California family

? Anglers dream of the day that the fishing is so hot the fish are jumping into the boat.

The Spiro family of Laguna Niguel experienced such a day firsthand in Cabo San Lucas a few of weeks ago and it just might land them on “America’s Funniest Home Videos.”

A 265-pound blue marlin jumped into their boat, causing all sorts of madness and mayhem, and it was all caught on videotape.

Fortunately, nobody was hurt, so the episode can be called amazing and amusing.

Scott and Patsy took sons Jonathan, 9, and Nicholas, 7, on a cruise ship to various Mexican ports and in three stops they scheduled fishing trips.

The Spiros enjoy fishing and have often targeted marlin at Catalina Island without success.

“They (the kids) didn’t believe marlin existed,” quipped Scott, a former skipper.

When the cruise ship stopped at Cabo, the family was whisked away to a charterboat at noon and was fishing within 40 minutes.

Soon, a marlin struck a jig. When Scott dropped back a live bait, the marlin turned from the jig and pounced on the live bait. Hook up.

Scott handed off the rod to Patsy and she fought the fish for 30 minutes. It wasn’t fighting much, however.

“I thought ‘This is no big deal’ because he was swimming toward the boat,” Patsy said.

Added Scott, “He hadn’t even started to fight. He was just having fun.”

When the fish got close, Patsy handed the rod to Scott and took over videotaping.

The fish came to the boat, so Scott beckoned the boys to the rail to take a closer look.

The line was moving away from the boat when all of a sudden, the fish made a 180-degree turn and leaped out of the water.

Jonathon instinctively ran into the cabin and Patsy grabbed Nicholas, but kept the camera rolling.

The tape shows the marlin jumping out of the water from the port side, across the stern and into the water on the starboard side.

Had anyone been standing at the stern, they could have reached out and touched the fish.

The marlin then made another 180-degree turn on the starboard side, leaping straight up out of the water and into the boat.

The tape shows the fish going ballistic, rapidly contorting its body back and forth, and swinging its deadly sword violently.

During the frenzy, the fish, with quick and strong wiggling of its tail, lifted the chair off its pedestal, over the rail and into the water.