A 16-year-old girl who went deep-sea fishing recently for only her second time, reeled up an estimated 583-pound goliath grouper, which dwarfs the women’s world record for the species.
“I was, like, in shock pretty much,” Reegan Werner told the TwinCities Pioneer Press on Saturday. “My biggest fish before that was a salmon.”
Werner, who is from Farmington, Minn., was fishing May 31 near Marco Island off Florida with her brother, mother, and stepfather.
Werner’s brother, Owen, hooked a hammerhead shark before the enormous grouper devoured Werner’s bait. Her catch, after a fierce but short battle of 15 minutes, became the highlight of the family excursion.
“These things have amazing power,” Paul Hartman, Werner’s stepfather, told the Pioneer Press. “A 115-pound girl catching a fish like that is beyond explanation just with the laws of physics.”
Goliath grouper have been protected off Florida since 1990, so the estimated weight was obtained using a time-tested measurement formula. The fish, which measured 83 inches with a 75-inch girth, was released immediately after the measurement process and a quick photo.
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According to the International Game Fish Assn., the heaviest goliath grouper caught by a woman weighed 366 pounds. That fish, caught by Betsy Walker off Panama in 1965, is the women’s world record for 80-pound-test line.
The overall world record is a 680-pound goliath grouper caught by Lynn Joyner off Fernandina Beach, Fla., in 1961. Joyner’s fish also holds the men’s record for 80-pound-test line.
Thanks to the longstanding harvesting ban, the population is growing and larger fish are again being encountered by scuba divers and catch-and-release anglers.
According to Hartman, who fishes often in the Gulf of Mexico, the grouper caught by Werner has been caught before and is nicknamed “My Lord.”
He explained that it’s because “each time it showed up, all anyone could say is, ‘My Lord, look at that!’ ”
–Image showing Reegan Werner and the giant goliath grouper is courtesy of Paul Hartman