Jim Spinuzza has one whale of a fish story
?There are fish stories, and then there are fish stories!
Jim Spinuzza, of Uniontown, has more than a fish story. It’s more like a whale of a tale.
Last weekend Spinuzza, along with a some family members and a friend went out on a charter boat in search of grouper off Marco Island on the west coast of Florida.
What he ended up landing was a goliath grouper that was estimated to weigh between 375 and 425 pounds.
While the term goliath grouper is a fitting description, it is the scientific name of the fish.
“We were driving around all day without catching anything when all of a sudden we had a hit. We were going for big ones, so we were using whole catfish (12-inch) for bait,” Jim said.
“We were kind of cruising around, thinking it just wasn’t a good day for fishing until that one got on the line and changed our minds pretty quickly.”
After the grouper hit, it took about 10 minutes before they landed it.
Actually, they didn’t land it. They did get it up to the boat, but they couldn’t get it on board, breaking two gaffs in a vain attempt to hoist the trophy on board.
“He ran when he hit,” Spinuzza said. “The rod bent so far we thought it was going to break.”
The boat did not have a fighting chair, but the rod was attached to a harness.
“He (the fish) pulled so hard my friends had to keep me from falling overboard,” Spinuzza said.
After they landed the grouper, Jim jumped overboard at the urging of his brothers to have his picture taken with his trophy.
“We released it, as it is illegal to keep a goliath grouper,” Spinuzza said.
Spinuzza said that the grouper was whipped after the fight, but after a few minutes rest alongside the boat, it just swam away.
The captain estimated the grouper’s weight. “We took his word for it,” Spinuzza said. “It is hard to estimate the weight, but he has been doing it for a long time.”
Goliath grouper, which were formerly known as jewfish, can weigh as much as 800 pounds with the record for one caught on a line being 680 pounds.
Spinuzza’s family fishes in Florida quite often, going after hammerhead shark and tarpon, but the grouper is by far the biggest fish he ever caught.
His father, Tom, brothers, Luke and Joe, and a friend Joe Cummings also played a big role in this fish story, which is going to be tough to top.
HeraldStandard.com Outdoors Editor Rod Schoener can be reached on line at rschoener@heraldstandard.com.