We report on plenty of record-breaking fish. But it’s not too often when a fish breaks a world record in a tournament no less, which was the case recently when a Bonita Springs, Florida man reeled in a 124-pound black grouper.
While goliath grouper can reach more than 300 pounds or even 552 pounds as a recent kayaker found, its svelte relative has been known to reach just 220 pounds.
But setting a world record requires the fish be registered with the International Game Fishing Association, and that’s exactly what Alex Newman, 30, did when he reeled in the monster 3rd Annual Offshore Rodeo Tournament held in the Bonita Springs.
Newman told the News-Press he battled the fish for 2-and-a-half-hours and thought they were defeated when their luck changed.
“But when we were lifting it up we couldn’t lift it,” he told the paper. “I fish the Gulf a lot. This is the biggest fish I’ve caught. When that thing popped up it was like a dinosaur.”
