300 pound grouper caught surf fishing Sanibel Island

[2true]

300 pound grouper caught surf fishing Sanibel Island:

http://fb-41906.sfglobe.com/2015/05/17/ ... _new_41906#

[big bend gyrene]

Very cool, but not in any shape, manner of form as unusual as the story makes it sound. Guessing you may already appreciate that fact, but if not promise I'm speaking the truth.

Anyone who does much offshore fishing here will tell you that Florida's decision to protect goliaths in the 90s paved the path for a huge population explosion. Our area is thick with them. Dolphinatic was with me about a month ago, dove a spot only about 20' deep, and only swam about 30 yards from the boat and counted 4 of them. I don't know if he'll see this but if does bet he'll confirm that 3 of the 4 were bigger than the fish in the video, with one MUCH more so. Last year board member Rhettley and I had one come up under a cobia we had hooked and the goliath was so big looked like a one man submarine surfacing. I've seen quite a few but that one was shockingly big.

As for the Sanibel location, also not unusual. When I was a boy in the mid-70s we owned a fishing shack (emphasis on shack ) on North Captiva. The island actually only had about a dozen similar shacks on it at the time, and of those only 2 (if memory serves) had year round residents. Really stretching the memory banks but one of the residents was named Jay and he landed a 300+ pound goliath in Capitva Pass after also hooking it while he was fishing from shore. Passes between Sanibel, Captiva, Cayo Costa, and Gasparilla see no shortage of them. Folks hook up to them regularly. Actually catching them is the hard part. Pretty cool that the lady angler managed to get that one to the sand.

[big bend gyrene]

Related note, I think a well measured / well controlled season on them would be a blessing not only in helping better control the goliath numbers but in letting the many fish they target rebound a bit too.

[2true]

My Brother-in-Law and I was fishing in Tampa bay by a bridge back in the 1980's, and he told me when he was a boy fishing the same spot a guy caught a jewfish that was rather quite large right off the base of the bridge. That was in the back of the bay................

[lonesouth]

+500lb goliath caught on a kayak, also at Sanibel.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/05 ... ble-catch/


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6gQbJiSGNA[/video]

[big bend gyrene]

Lonesouth, don't know which is more shocking... that the big goliath was yanked up by a kayaker OR that Sam Kinison obviously faked his death and still lives! Those are definitely matching screaming voices.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylyts7L6Hwg[/video]

[bman]

Sounds a little like Farley
Oh my god he broke the rod!

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