Captain's Corner

By Gary Folden

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 18, 2000

The natural coral reefs that proliferate off our coast are home to an abundance of fish during the summer.

The top predators on these reefs, and the most sought-after, are groupers. The largest of the groupers are jewfish. They often exceed several hundred pounds and visit our reefs in the summer. The largest on record weighed a whopping 680 pounds. Since it has been illegal to posses jewfish for more than a decade, their numbers have increased. The light and dark brown mottling on their sides, large rounded tail and big grouper-type mouth make them unmistakable.

I lock the drags down on my grouper reels, but when one of these giants bite, the drag grudgingly gives up line to the power of the jewfish. They love large fish. I usually hook a jewfish only after hooking another reef fish and failing to act quickly enough to avoid the demon of the deep.

I have had clients get in tug-of-war matches with jewfish over 8-pound gag groupers. They typically will break your line and cut you off in the reef. But I have had an 80-year-old woman land a 35-pound jewfish on 12-pound test line!

- Gary Folden charters the Strike Zone out of Clearwater Municipal Marina. Call (727) 585-8544.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.

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