A quick glance at my pressure gauge indicated 600lbs. If I smiled any wider my face was going to split in half. Now string him up.” At his point it was hard to keep a seal on my regulator. These fish can be almost three feet long and up to 400 kilograms heavy. In the coral reefs the giant grouper is the largest bony fish. Seing a lot of snapper, one doggy and huge coral grouper. Through this hunting method there is almost nothing that the giant grouper cannot eat. Don’t stab yourself in the hand! Just hold him still enough to get the point started. First days were pretty windy with strong current and we decided for inshore spearfishing. “Ok, now what are you going to do? You have your whole hand in the mouth of a *&%^ off fish. I brought my knees up and braced them and my left arm. I tried bracing with my left hand and tugging. Well, at least it was slower than a freight train. Jim is right next to you, RELAX.” After what seemed like an eternity, my breathing returned to normal. Your left hand is still free, and you can reach your pony bottle if needed. Eat this! Once my whole hand was in, I felt around until I was able to grab him by the gills from the inside. As he angrily chewed on my thumb (thank god for 3 mil gloves), I worked the rest of my right hand into his mouth. I forced my right thumb into his mouth and tried to pull him out by his lower jaw. He couldn’t even use his pectoral fins to maneuver. But, what could he do? The tunnel that he had slithered into was too small to turn around in. With no way to get a spear in there, I reached in with both hands and tried to grab him by the gills. I could just see the underside of his jaw. After the silt settled a bit, I was able to peak around inside. Since there was absolutely no chance of ever getting him from the hole where I originally spotted him, I moved around to what I hoped was his front. The “smoke” was billowing out from every opening in the rock. ( See National Geographic magazine's stunning. At this point he was getting very agitated and was making a lot of thumping noises. As their name suggests, goliath groupers are true underwater giants, reaching 8 feet (2.4 meters) long and weighing up to 800 pounds (360 kilograms). No luck, this fish was up under the rock and neither of us could get the angle. With Jim on one side and me on the other, we tried to get our guns into position for a shot. I rose up over the rock and motioned for Jim to join me. While I was trying to make up my mind, it slowly snaked forward and I could see the square tail of a black grouper. It’s mottle appearance looked too much like a goliath grouper. I could just make out a small section of the side of a fish. I swam over the top and used my flashlight to peak in the holes. There was some type off predator near that rock! Maybe it would be I nice fat black. As they got near a large rock, they suddenly changed direction and sped away. I was watching a school of small fish that were coming towards us. But, here is the story of the grouper tickler…Jim and I were diving along the drop off. I won’t bore you with details of every dive. Uncle Dave has a fish story to tell…Īfter getting blown out by 25-30 mph winds and 10’ seas in June, we finally got back out on the MV Playmate last weekend for some much anticipated spear fishing.
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