For good reason. When I was a kid these guys were legal to hunt and I can remember my dad, uncle and cousin Greg shooting them on wrecks and under the phosphate dock in Boca Grand.
In essence, they are just a huge grouper. They are good to eat and easy to find, any piece of structure in the State of Florida bigger than your dining room table seems to have one on it and it is not uncommon to see a dozen or more from 50-700lbs on a single Shipwreck.
Imagine what it takes to sustain a single fish that size much less a few dozen. They eat, a lot, and as Spearfisherman in Florida you have come to live with the fact that they are all over the place and you are going to lose some fish to them.
We end up leaving a lot of spots we fish because you can’t get anything past them. Two years ago I speared a 100 lb Amberjack only to have a 300lb Jewfish (Goliath Grouper) come and bite it sideways and pull it off the shaft. Insane what these fish are capable of!
Even worse, when tank diving you can hardly put a fish on a stringer without fear of one of these behemoths coming and grabbing it, and you and giving you the fright of your life.
This week I’ve been diving off the West Coast of Florida and doing some fishing for team SALT LIFE and Electric Sunglasses and having a blast on the flats all the way out to the blue water. The boys challenged me that I couldn’t catch one of these giants that were lurking on the bottom and stealing our baits and hooked fish so I drew deep from my Caymanian Handlining skills and brought this little guy up to the surface for a few pictures.
We removed the hooked and used a venting tool to drain the air from the fish’s expanded air bladder and watched as he happily sank back to the bottom and finished eating the chum that we had dropped earlier. Insane fish. In the coming years it is likely that there will be some changes in the regulations regarding them but for now it is illegal to bring them on the boat even for a picture. There is no spearing of them allowed and I’ve got my fingers crossed that some of the ongoing studies with the Fish and Wildlife will show what we all know already, there are literally thousands of these fish around.
When was the last time you saw a Jewfish? How big? Where? What size?
I’m going to get in touch with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission and see if we as divers can help do a census on these monsters to get an accurate count to prove the numbers are through the roof.
For the time being… Check out this beast. 190cm long and around 450-500lbs.
Standing at the ready waiting for the big bite. In 4-6 ft seas and 20 knot winds I had my hands full whenever I got a “nibble”
This is not bass fishing…
450lbs of fish stealing power and future Grouper Fillets for the 2015 Spearblog 1st Annual Goliath Challenge
Pictures courtesy of Ed Walker at www.lighttacklecharters.com
Remember the regulations on these fish are not flexible and they will take your boat and slap you with a hefty fine if you “accidentally” take one of these. I know we are all frustrated with these fish but if we play it right and help out the people doing the research on the Goliath Groupers it is likely that we will be some of the first to get a shot (literally) at taking one of these monsters.
Any ideas on a quota, lottery, size limit? When was the last time you had your fish taken by one?
Cameron Kirkconnell
8 Responses to “450 lb Grouper… Cameron Kirkconnell”
In South Africa, especially in areas like Sodwana, the potato bass are really becoming a hassle. It really is almost impossible to land a fish when they’re around. I think their protection has caused a slight imbalance.
Last time I saw a Goliath was back in March diving out of Key West. Last encounter with one was last summer diving out of Jax. I lost what would have been my first Gag grouper since moving to Jacksonville, FL. Shot the gag in 50′ on a wreck. Having not used my reel in a while, I forgot to put on the pressure and the gag bolted into an opening in a wreck. Tugged twice and felt a very HEAVY fish on the end, followed by the drumming they make. Surfaced. Dove back down and saw the culprit sitting inside the wreck…abotu 300lbs. Upshot, I was able to get the shaft back after a few more drops and some tugging.
The biggest problem with regulations is they make them for too big a region (entire Gulf or Atlantic). States should make regulations that work for their State, not the feds. Over here in Mississippi, we get a rare treat to come across one of these guys and maybe they should be protected. They are very easy to take as you said. On the other hand, we have tons and tons of Red Snapper, but they only let us recreational guys take them from June 1 to July 18. We went yesterday and brought home 1 Triggerfish and threw back about 30 Red Snapper, several in the 5-15 pound range. All this while any commercial boat was allowed to keep up to 2,000 pounds of them at the same spots. This is not fair. I don’t think recreational fishing should close at all. Reduce the limit to one fish per boat if you must, but don’t close it. That way, if you have a pesty Goliath on one of your favorite holes, you can get some relief and some good meat by taking one, and over here, I can take home a single Red Snapper for my Mother on Mother’s Day which she just loves to eat. The Federal Government should not be involved in Fishing Regulations at this level. They should only regulate what other Countries are doing to our resources.
Twice while diving a wreck off of Naples last week I encountered many Jew fish…First day I counted 4 all in the 40-100 lb range..not he very next day at the very same location I couldn’t believe the amount of Jews…so many I couldn’t even begin to get a count. My estimation is there were 20+ of them, ranging from 40-500 lbs… Craziness! In the Two days diving this spot I managed to see one legal sized grouper, one small grouper, and a bunch of immature mangrove snapper. Jeez I wonder why…maybe there is a problem…this is a common problem in the waters off of lee and collier counties.
I believe a one per boat daily limit is reasonable. Although I wouldn’t be apposed to something similar to a tag system similar to deer hunting is managed.
haha “so I drew deep from my Caymanian Handlining skills and brought this little guy up to the surface for a few pictures.”
Because he was really little, wasn’t he?
WouuuW….Ikan Kerapu raksasa (in Indonesian)
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Amazing grouper. I wish I could deep sea fish but have a bad problem with sea sickness. Good job on the post. Enjoyed it. Good luck in all your new endeavors.
We saw two 300+lb. jews July 4th on an artificial reef off of Weeki Wachee… And they were the only adult fish there.