Fishing Forum

[indent][font "Arial"][#000000][size 2][indent][font "Tahoma"][size 6]medical student lands 359-lb grouper[/size][/font] [font "Times New Roman"][size 3]November 13, 2007[/size][/font][font "Tahoma"][size 2] [/size][/font][font "Times New Roman"][size 3][/size][/font][font "Tahoma"][size 2][/size][/font][font "Times New Roman"][size 3]THIBODAUX[/size][/font][font "Tahoma"][size 2] , La.[/size][/font][font "Tahoma"][size 2] --A medical student who blindfolds his friends to keep his favorite offshore fishing spot secret has come up with a record-beating fish -- a warsaw grouper weighing 359.1 pounds.[/size][/font] [font "Times New Roman"][size 3][/size][/font][font "Tahoma"][size 2][/size][/font][font "Times New Roman"][size 3]The giant hauled in by J.J. Tabor of Thibodaux is 12 ounces above the previous Louisiana state record, a state biologist confirmed.[/size][/font][font "Tahoma"][size 2][/size][/font] [font "Times New Roman"][size 3]It's been cut down to fillets. The first fillet weighed 53 pounds, Tabor said.[/size][/font][font "Tahoma"][size 2][/size][/font] [font "Times New Roman"][size 3]He caught it near an oil rig 70 miles south of Fourchon, in 400 feet of water. He won't give a more specific description.[/size][/font][font "Tahoma"][size 2][/size][/font] [font "Times New Roman"][size 3]'It's J.J.'s secret,' said Joey Rodrigue, a friend from Baton Rouge who joined Tabor and Tabor's father, John, on the record-making trip Saturday. 'I don't even know where I was. He blindfolds us on the way out.'[/size][/font][font "Tahoma"][size 2][/size][/font] [font "Times New Roman"][size 3]Tabor said he thought at first that his hook with a live hardtail on it had it the bottom 'until I felt the big head shake.'[/size][/font][font "Tahoma"][size 2][/size][/font] [font "Times
 New Roman"][size 3]Rodrigue steered away from the rig.[/size][/font][font "Tahoma"][size 2][/size][/font] [font "Times New Roman"][size 3]'I put myself in a harness and just had to lay back and fight,' J.J. Tabor said. 'It was about a 15 or 20 minute fight.'[/size][/font][font "Tahoma"][size 2][/size][/font] [font "Times New Roman"][size 3]Tabor cleaned the fish late Monday afternoon outside his father's auto repair shop in Thibodaux . 'We'll split it up,' he said. 'I'll make some phone calls and try to get rid of it fresh. The rest, we'll vacuum pack it and cook it later.'[/size][/font][font "Tahoma"][size 2][/size][/font] [font "Times New Roman"][size 3]Tabor says he believes the fish is about 33 years old. He plans to send an inner-ear bone called the otolith to a university in Florida where researchers can help determine the age of the fish. He hopes to get the results in about four weeks.[/size][/font][font "Tahoma"][size 2][/size][/font] [font "Times New Roman"][size 3]The world record, caught off Florida in 1985, is 436 pounds, 12 ounces.[/size][/font][font "Tahoma"][size 2][/size][/font] [font "Times New Roman"][size 3][/size][/font][font "Tahoma"][size 2][/size][/font][font "Arial"][size 2][/size][/font][font "Tahoma"][size 2][/size][/font] [font "Times New Roman"][size 3][/size][/font][font "Tahoma"][size 2][/size][/font][font "Times New Roman"][size 3][/size][/font][font "Tahoma"][size 2][/size][/font][font "Arial"][size 2][/size][/font][font "Tahoma"][size 2][/size][/font] [font "Times New Roman"][size 3][/size][/font][font "Tahoma"][size 2][/size][/font][font "Times New Roman"][size 3][/size][/font][font "Tahoma"][size 2][/size][/font][font "Arial"][size 2][/size][/font][font "Tahoma"][size 2][/size][/font] [font "Times New Roman"][size 3][/size][/font][font "Tahoma"][size 2][/size][/font][font "Times
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That is one big fish and a lot of fish Tacos to boot.

Get the salsa ready![shocked]
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I'm curious about something............I thought Warshaw grouper were protected now.
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Ya but this was an LA grouper. [cool]
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Nice. I wonder how old that big grouper was? Been around a while i'm sure. I wouldn't mind seeing the fillets off than thing. Holy crap batman!!!! They'd be huge.
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He says it might be about 33 years old. Nice fish.
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That's an old fish. I bet the meat is strong. I was thinking about that last night. A fish that old and big, the meat can't be that pleasant. You'd have to soak the fillets in butter milk for a week to get a decent flavor out of them. [unimpressed]
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No need to soak em. In one weeks time, your flower beds will benefit more from them than your palet would.[cool]
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I kinda figured Steve. I never keep those big fish because of that. But, that's a whole other thread. It would be a difficult decision to have to make if you knew you had a world record fish, but you also knew that in killing it to claim your prize, you gain nothing but a pile of flesh that isn't worth eatting.
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Wow, that is a lot of meat.
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I have a special arrangement for the Salty boats that I go on. It is simple.

I catch a big fish on light line. It gets put into a special tank to keep it alive. I weigh it at the landing on a certified scale and supply all the important measurements while it is looked up in the book.

If it is indeed a record, it is kept alive and well untill the authorities can get there to verify. If it is not, it goes right back into the water and continues to live.[cool]
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Sounds like good advise. Thats what we do with some of our bass. It would have to been one large holding tank. OK, now get it out of the tank. [] Seriosly there should be a way you could prove the record with out keeping the fish.
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You know, that's probably one of the biggest areas of discussion for the IGFA. I'm a member and get thier news letter and all. Keeping a smaller species of fish alive like a LMB or a bream is easy, but how do you keep a 800 pound shark alive? A 350 pound grouper? You can't, and with out verifying the species and confirming it with a biologist, no dice. It would be sweet if there was a way to simply take a flesh sample and somehow prove that it came from the fish. Then we could release the fish and simply provide the sample to the biologist for confirmation. But, the un-honest element would surface and it would be unfair to all the anglers that really did land a world record fish. I've let go more than a couple that I thought would break, not a line class record, but an All Tackle record. (Bowfin, Atlantic Sheepshead, Atlantic Spadefish, just to name a few) But, I wasn't sure what to do, and I didn't want to kill the fish for no reason. I was afraid I would do something wrong during the process of registering it and the fish would die in vain. Not my style. I'd rather let the fish go and catch him again another day. (unless he's a good eating fish, then he meets my frying pan or grill) But, most fish of large size are poor food quality, so there's no need to keep them anyhow. And you know the stupid part of all this? You have to pay to register a fish for a world record. LMAO!!!!!!!! What the hell? It's like 70 something dollars. They should pay us for all the crap we go through to register the fish.
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