Warsaw grouper – Syndication Server

Massive grouper catch stuns crowd at Florida fishing dock

The rare catch of a giant Warsaw grouper on Sunday remains the most notable highlight, so far, during a monthlong fishing competition in Destin, Fla.

The rare catch of a giant Warsaw grouper Sunday remains the most notable highlight, so far, during a monthlong fishing competition in Destin, Fla.

The grouper, landed by Garrett Thornton with Capt. Kyle Lowe aboard the Special K, weighed nearly 350 pounds. But the official “gutted” weight stands at 333.8 pounds, making it the second-largest Warsaw grouper landed in the 74-year history of the Destin Fishing Rodeo.

“It took 30 minutes to get him to the top, but then it took over an hour to figure out how to get him over the side of the boat,” Lowe told The Destin Log. “It took all five of us.”

The rodeo record for Warsaw grouper is 358.8 pounds. The state and world record stands at 436 pounds, 12 ounces. That fish, also caught off Destin, was landed in 1985.

Lowe told The Destin Log that he had known of the whereabouts of a giant grouper in offshore waters since last August, because it kept attacking smaller snowy grouper his clients targeted with lighter tackle.

ALSO: Mountain lion hunts coyote in eerie footage captured by trail-cam

Lowe promised Thornton he’d wait until an appropriate time during the rodeo and take him to that spot with heavy tackle. On Sunday he fulfilled that promise.

“We dropped one rod, one bait,” Lowe said. “I thought we were going to have to smoke out the bite, but he bit within 15 seconds. I knew it was going to be a good one, but I had no idea it was going to be that big.”

The Charter Boat Special K Facebook page is filled with posts showing footage of the grouper and the lively scene at the dock.

Among other notable catches during the 2022 Destin Fishing Rodeo, which runs through October, was that of a 101-pound wahoo, setting a tournament record.

–Image courtesy of Charter Boat Special K and AJ’s Seafood & Oyster Bar

[listicle id=1969738]

Anglers land enormous Warsaw grouper after three-year quest

Two Florida anglers have landed a Warsaw grouper so enormous that it required the strength of an entire crew to hoist the fish over the rail.

“It was a monster! One of the largest ever caught,” Joshua Jorgensen, owner of BlacktipH Fishing, exclaimed in a news release issued Wednesday. “The fish floated to the surface and we all started screaming. We didn’t realize how difficult it would be to bring this fish in the boat.

“It took four grown men to lift this fish over the gunnels.”

Jason Boyll (left) and Joshua Jorgensen with 294-pound grouper

For Jorgensen and Jason Boyll, the catch of a 294-pound Warsaw grouper fulfilled a BlacktipH filming quest that began with an unsuccessful 100-mile offshore expedition in 2019.

The two tried again in January 2020, and reeled a monstrous grouper 150 feet from the sea floor before the hulking fish dashed back into bottom structure and broke the line.

Warsaw grouper are found in the western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, south to Brazil.

But catching the larger fish presents a challenge, in part, because there aren’t as many as there used to be (the current bag limit is only one per vessel). But also because the true giants are found at great depths and rarely stray from the safety of structure.

Jorgensen and Boyll set out from Fort Myers on Jan. 22 with Capt. Gord Daniher and a crewman aboard Daniher’s 42-foot boat. They ran for four hours to a spot called “Pulley Ridge,” where Boyll dropped a banded rudderfish more than 400 feet to the bottom.

The bite was almost immediate.

It took the strength of four men to lift the grouper onto the boat

“A giant Warsaw had taken the bait!” Jorgensen wrote. “Jason started cranking as hard as possible to prevent the monster from breaking us off on the bottom. After an incredibly intense 10-minute battle, Jason managed to bring the fish 150 feet off the bottom before being completely exhausted.

“I switched with Jason and continued cranking the fish to the surface. It took both of us to reel in this monster.”

Warsaw grouper possess sharp and dangerous dorsal-fin spines

The men wrestled the fish into a cooler and arrived at Fort Myers the next day. They used a tractor to hoist the grouper onto the dock.

Said Jorgensen: “The scale read 294 pounds, which means this fish was well over 300 pounds when we caught him. These fish normally lose 10% of their body weight before we can get them to the dock.

“It’s the biggest I’ve ever seen in person. The fish was longer than me, well over 7 feet in length.”

For the sake of comparison, the Florida state and all-tackle world record for Warsaw grouper stands at 436 pounds, 12 ounces. That fish was caught off Destin in the Gulf of Mexico in December 1985.

–Images courtesy of BlacktipH Fishing

Fisherman catches 50-year-old grouper, and some flack

A fisherman caught a 350-pound grouper that biologists determined to be 50 years old and a value to its aging program. Some aren’t happy.

A Florida fisherman landed a 350-pound Warsaw grouper off Southwest Florida that biologists from the FWC Fish and Wildlife Research Institute determined to be 50 years old and a valuable asset to its aging program.

“Biologists from FWRI’s Age and Growth Lab estimated the age of this fish at 50 years old, making this the oldest sample collected for our aging program,” the institute reported on its Facebook page. “Acquiring the otolith from this fish was extremely valuable as samples from larger and older fish are rare.”

Otoliths are commonly known as “ear stones” and help biologists determine the age as well as growth rates of various fishes.

The catch was made by Jason Boyll of Sarasota on Dec. 29 while fishing in 600 feet of water.

“Almost as exciting as seeing this guy boat-side was the look on everyone’s face and the excitement when I got this otolith,” Boyll wrote on his Facebook page. “So happy @fwcresearch was able to process this.”

Also on FTW Outdoors: Hunter acts fast when charged by mountain lion

Not everybody was happy. Many comments under the institute’s post were critical of the catch of what the FWRI called “a big old fish.” One called it a tragedy; another said it is “so wrong.”

“This is actually sad,” someone wrote. “A fish like that should not have been killed.”

“Catch and release is the way to go,” another added.

Though biologists acknowledged the value of acquiring such a specimen, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said it “does not encourage the targeting of Warsaw grouper since the status of the population in the Gulf is unknown.”

The Warsaw grouper is characterized by an elongated dorsal spine, and is the only grouper with 10 dorsal spines, one less than all the others. They are found in depths from 180 to 1,700 feet.

Photos of the catch and otolith courtesy of FWC Fish and Wildlife Research Institute.

Follow David Strege and the outdoors on Facebook.