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Santiago
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80# gulf grouper
http://www.mexfish.com/mfn/mfn2009/mfn%7F090209/mfn090209.ht...
Gene reports an big gulf grouper out of Santa Rosalita this week - anyone see this?
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fishbuck
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Awesome!!!
"A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for." J. A. Shedd.
A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it. – Albert Einstein
"Life's a Beach... and then you Fly!" Fishbuck
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4baja
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nice fish!!!
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Paulina
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Nice fish, but too bad they kept it. 
\"Well behaved women rarely make history.\" Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
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Hook
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Agree with Paulina.
There really is no excuse for not carrying an inexpensive releasing rig. Well, unless you feel you must kill, I guess.
Picture a 14/0 hook with the shank pointed down. Crimp the barb against the body of the hook. Attach 6 inches of some heavy mono or wire at the middle
of the bend and terminate the other end with a barrel swivel.
Now attach a longer piece of wire/line to the eye and terminate that with a clip swivel. Onto this attach lead of sufficient weight to get it down.
Have a pole with some heavy line on board just for this purpose. Spectra is best, since you want to minimize line stretch.
When you catch a big bottom dweller, attach the hook through the upper lip with the point pointed down. Now lower the fish with a consistent descent
rate to the bottom. Once you're near the bottom, give a quick jerk upward on the rig to "release" the hook from the lip. Even if he revives before you
get there and begins to move off on his own, the hook will release pretty quickly.
Cost of rig-about 5.00-10.00 dollars
Release of an old gulf grouper-PRICELESS!!
[Edited on 2-10-2009 by Hook]
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Pescador
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Hook
Agree with Paulina.
There really is no excuse for not carrying an inexpensive releasing rig. Well, unless you feel you must kill, I guess.
Picture a 14/0 hook with the shank pointed down. Crimp the barb against the body of the hook. Attach 6 inches of some heavy mono or wire at the middle
of the bend and terminate the other end with a barrel swivel.
Now attach a longer piece of wire/line to the eye and terminate that with a clip swivel. Onto this attach lead of sufficient weight to get it down.
Have a pole with some heavy line on board just for this purpose. Spectra is best, since you want to minimize line stretch.
When you catch a big bottom dweller, attach the hook through the upper lip with the point pointed down. Now lower the fish with a consistent descent
rate to the bottom. Once you're near the bottom, give a quick jerk upward on the rig to "release" the hook from the lip. Even if he revives before you
get there and begins to move off on his own, the hook will release pretty quickly.
Cost of rig-about 5.00-10.00 dollars
Release of an old gulf grouper-PRICELESS!!
[Edited on 2-10-2009 by Hook] |
This is good theory but the reality is that these fish occur very infrequently. I have fished this area a lot in the last ten years and have managed
to only catch two big grouper with one in the 75-80 lb category and another around 156 lbs. they are a totally incidental catch and usualy come when
fishing for yellowtail, which is what Ed Duitsman was doing in January when he caught this one. It is a great idea to have a release rig ready and
there is a new one from Australia that is covered in last month Sportfishing Magazine but you have to be thinking that you have a chance of catching
one of these fish and then have the release equipment ready to go.
All of these fish come from over 100 ft in depth and when you get them up beyond 40 feet, the air bladder inflates and the fish becomes incapable
of swimming on it's own. So you have to either release the gases in the bladder ( this is only partially successful with a release vent) or you have
to have a rig like Hook is suggesting which will carry the fish back down to the depths where the bladder will shrink to its normal size and the fish
can swim away.
I have suggested for a long time that people carry these rigs but I also understand that people like Ed Duitsman may only come across one of these
fish in his lifetime so it is a little unrealistic to expect that he would have had a release rig at the ready. I have talked to several fishermen
from the Rocky Point area, where they find these fish more frequently, who carry some type of release rig.
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Hook
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I wouldnt call having an extra pole and this one rig an "unrealistic" expectation, when fishing on the bottom. We all carry extra poles out there.
It's just a matter of making the rig and fighting the urge to take the fish.
Is using it rare? Yes.
I have only used it once and that was on a fish that was somewhere around 20-30 lbs. I say somewhere because I am reluctant to weigh, hold a fish up,
plop it on my lap and THEN release it, Mexfish.com style. 
What are these people thinking? All for a weeks worth of fame on the internet? 
And if more and more people continue to take these fish with no plan on how to release them...........it will become even rarer than it is these days.
To each, his own, though..........especially when it comes to fishing in Mexico.
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Santiago
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Thanks Hook - I've never heard of that and will make one of these; ensuring, of course, that I'll never catch one - but that's ok too.
Who was the charter captain on the old Amigos board from CSL that used to rant pretty heavily on those folks who killed big fish, especially bill
fish.
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fishbuck
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I gotta say that if I caught a fish like this I would be totally unprepared to release it. I would release it if the captain knew how. I would not
want that much meat and would prefer to keep 1 smaller one for diner.
I have watched a few very large black seabass released from California party fishing boats. They usually just poke a hole in the swim bladder with a
knife and put him back in the water.
I hope that works!
[Edited on 2-11-2009 by fishbuck]
"A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for." J. A. Shedd.
A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it. – Albert Einstein
"Life's a Beach... and then you Fly!" Fishbuck
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Gaucho
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I've never eaten one of those really large grouper or black sea bass but I can't imagine they would taste very good. I've eaten a few large (old)
calico bass, halibut etc... They just don't taste as good as the younger "meal
size" fish 
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Bajaboy
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Our neighbor in Asuncion recently caught one that was about a 100 kilos. It was amazing watching them clean the fish and all the excitement that went
along with it. They were fishing for yellowtail using 40# test.
Based on what I saw, these fish are not caught that often. While plenty of people here say the fish should have been released, plenty of locals were
fed for some time. And Gaucho, the fish was incredibly tasty by the way. We were offered a bag of the fish which we happily accepted.
As Hook said, to each his own.
Zac
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Gaucho
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Since I've never eaten a really big grouper I'll give it a try next time I'm down there if the opportunity presents itself. I really like the BIGGER
pelagics; tuna, wahoo, dorado, yellowtail etc...
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Don Alley
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I just got one of these venting tools:
http://www.teammarineusa.us/html/prevent.html
Haven't used it yet.
Mostly for bottom fish caught incidently while making bait. Large grouper are very rarely caught here. I've only caught two gulf grouper and neither
was a big one.
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Skipjack Joe
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Most nomads who post on this forum are very experienced baja fishermen who fish down there a lot and are very aware of the state of the fishery, the
life span of different species, and the importance of preserving those large females.
But most baja anglers are the one time fishermen that come down for a once in a lifetime vacation and when something that big latches on there is no
chance of release. This is something that can be told and retold back home to friends and neighbors for years to come. Unfortunately their panguero
guides are more than willing to aid in the matter and seldom will mention the importance of a 200lb grouper released. There seems to be agreement on
releasing only billfish among the pangueros. The rest is kept with the argument that "all is eaten, nothing goes to waste".
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Martyman
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What about puncturing the swim bladder? Does that work?
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Paulina
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Don Alley,
I'm going to order one to keep on the panga.
Thanks for the link,
P<*)))>{
\"Well behaved women rarely make history.\" Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
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ZThomas
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According to a CDFG biologist I interviewed a while back, puncturing a bladder protruding from the mouth leads to infection and death more often than
not.
And trying to hit a swim bladder through the chest wall with a needle--or, worse yet, a knife--usually results in stabbing some other organ.
Some means of returning the fish to the depths--like the one Hook suggests--is about the only way to give it much of chance of survival. I know the
Coastside guys in the Bay Area were working on some kind of device for releasing rockfish that involved lowering them in a milk crate and then somehow
releasing them. Obviously, that wouldn't work for an 80-lb. grouper.
At any rate, it's my belief that poking a hole in an internal organ with a dirty knife--as most anglers do--isn't of much use.
If you're really serious about ensuring survival of big grouper types you might hook, you can try cutting the line as soon as you see deep color and
can tell what you've got. It may be too late, or it may not. If it is, the fish is just going to float to the surface anyway. If it's not, the fish
should turn and kick back down. And a 5/0 hook in the maw of an 80+ lb. grouper is likely a minor annoyance at most.
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Don Alley
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| Quote: | Originally posted by ZThomas
According to a CDFG biologist I interviewed a while back, puncturing a bladder protruding from the mouth leads to infection and death more often than
not.
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That's the stomach coming out of the mouth. Not supposed to poke that. You can deflate the swim bladder by piercing the skin, under a scale just
behind the pectoral fin. That's what the deflating tool I have does, and all that info is in the instructions.
The weight and hook method is a good one, but I wonder how much weight do you need for a 200 lb grouper?
And finally, there is a method for smaller fish where the fish are lowered down in an upside-down weighted plastic crate. Some biologists did some
tests with these rigs and got very high survival rates from fish that had bulging eyeballs and stomachs distending out their mouths when brought to
the surface.
While I sympathize with some of the SoCal fishermen who believe the marine reserve movement is going too far, I think in Baja, where virtually all
fish caught are killed, that these groupers really need areas closed to fishing.
Haven't seen any big grouper lately...the larger yellowtail have been scarce too and a popular target now is very small yellowtail of 2-5 lbs, with a
few a bit bigger. "Those little ones are really good eating," people say.
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4baja
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most of the grouper that we have caught have been in very shallow water(around 20 to 60 feet) and fish up to 50 pounds were you can take out the hook
and set them free no problem. most people dont know how to release them properly so i would recomend to keep the fish. if you dont know how then more
then likely they will die
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Paulina
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| Quote: | Originally posted by 4baja
most of the grouper that we have caught have been in very shallow water(around 20 to 60 feet) and fish up to 50 pounds were you can take out the hook
and set them free no problem. most people dont know how to release them properly so i would recomend to keep the fish. if you dont know how then more
then likely they will die |
Steve,
What depth at La Guarda did you catch this big boy last summer?
Dern
\"Well behaved women rarely make history.\" Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
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