Record Grouper

We ran out for the re-opening of Virginia’s sea bass season yesterday. We caught a nice class of bass with a number pushing the 5-pound mark.

In addition to the bass fishing, we did some deeper bottom fishing in the area of the Norfolk Canyon. We had a good day catching: 5 Golden Tilefish, a Pollock, Blackbelly Rosefish, 12 or so Hake, Blueline Tilefish to 17 pounds 5 ounces, and 2 Snowy Grouper.

Steve Martin caught both our largest golden and blueline tilefish.

Roger Burnley caught both snowy grouper but he owes a shout-out to Wes Blow. We would have already come home but Wes has a thing about battling sea monsters and wanted to do “one more drop” for 2 or 3 hours after we were ready to quit. By the time Roger caught his second grouper, only he and Wes were still fishing. After this fish, Roger quit also. It was worth the extra effort. His first snowy weighed 50 pounds. We weighed his second fish at the VMRC building this morning. The digital scale read 70.48 pounds, which will be 70 pounds 7 ounces (2 hundredths short of an even 7-8). That is a lot of fish to crank up from 600 feet. The whole crew is dragging today.

We are going through the state and IGFA World Record processes. If approved (and it should be), this will be the 6th All-Tackle World Record Snowy Grouper caught on the Healthy Grin. It will be the 10th All-Tackle World Record caught on the boat overall.

Roger Burnley previously held the IGFA Snowy Grouper record and he established the initial Virginia State Record for the species (on the same trip Jeff Dail established the initial state record for golden tilefish).