Recently, a fishing boat in the Gulf waters off Florida made a surprising catch: a U.S. military drone. Daniel Arsenault, a 36-year-old charter captain, discovered the drone while fishing. He initially thought it was an upside-down boat but soon realized it was a drone. At the time, Arsenault was fishing with active-duty military helicopter pilots who identified it as a target drone.

Feeling confident about his catch, Arsenault added the drone to a haul that included mahi-mahi caught near it. He and his crew then brought the drone back to the dock, photographed it alongside the day’s catch, and handed it over to the sheriff’s department. The government later retrieved the drone from there.

Hot Spots Charters, where the fishing took place, posted a photo of the drone next to a table of fish on Facebook. The caption humorously invited anyone searching for their drone to contact them. A spokesperson for Eglin Air Force Base later confirmed that a LUCAS drone, short for Low-cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System, had impacted the water during routine testing. The drone was recovered and returned to the Department of Defense.

The military base regularly conducts exercises in Gulf waters and was engaged in munitions testing at the time. CENTCOM, which oversees U.S. forces in the Middle East, launched a new task force armed with these drones in late 2025. They were used in combat for the first time during Operation Epic Fury against Iran.

This incident marked a unique occurrence, but it’s not the first time a fishing boat has caught something unusual off Florida’s coast. In 2023, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor and her family caught 70 pounds of cocaine estimated to be worth over $1 million during a fishing trip in the Florida Keys.