That is one heck of a catch.

I used to see them when we used to scuba dive in Florida, but never that big.

If I saw that thing while I was diving I might swim the other way. lol.

I don't know much about Grouper, but my father is a deep sea driller and he always told us that the divers were as concerned about the Groupers as the sharks. I want to say that they were often 500+ lbs and they were not aggressive, but they were very curious and would come up to the divers while working and interfere with their hoses and lines.

1 kilogram = 2.20462262 pounds

 179.5 kg =  395.73 pounds

This grouper would look like 500 lbs if you were in the water with it.

All Tackle World Record Giant Grouper All Tackle World Record: Giant Grouper 179.50 kg on 130 lbs line Angler: Nelson Shayne Place: Latham Island (12 March 2004) Boat: Shuwari (Capt. Jason Alexiou) Skipper: Maddalena Martinengo (Mady) Mate: Jason, Kosmas, Murtaza world record grouper, world record giant grouper, record grouper, record giant grouper, grouper, giant, latham, tanzania

Nelson Keith Shayne together with a group of friends decided to have a trip to Latham Island, together with Jason and Mady.
Unfortunately in that period, the boat usually used by Jason and Mady was out of the water for servicing, but, thanks to the ready assistance of Peter Ruysenaars of the Pemba Channel Fishing Club,
Jason Alexiou as a Captain, Maddalena as a skipper, and Baraza and Cosmas as mates, managed to satisfy the request of Nelson and his friends, and venture towards Latham Island, by using one of Peter's boat, Shuwari.

For the occasion, Jason re-fitted the boat with his tackle: rods, lures, rigs and electronics;
the plan was to target dogtooth tuna, but there were too many Giant Trevallies around which were hooking up as soon as a lure was dropped in the water, without leaving a chance for anything else.
So Jason decided to drop a bonito as a live bait, which was pulled around for almost 20 minutes before being taken.
The strike was really powerfull.
Nelson picked up the rod.
We all knew that it was a big fish, but we could not recognize what from the fighting attitude: a massive take, several powerful short runs, broken by periods where it was almost impossible to gain a centimeter of line.
Just the last 10 meters the fish gave up, coming up on the surface with no resistance.
Only than we realised that it was a massive 179.5 kg Giant Grouper.
We though about releasing it, unfortunately the fish was finished.

 

Congratulations to Nelson Keith Shayne for the great fight.
Well done Jason Alexiou and Maddalena Martinengo for helping acheive another World Record.
Thank you to Peter for allowing us the complete use of one of his boats.

Nice

Didn't that beast battle Godzilla in a movie?

Thats sweet, i have caught a little one but not one that big.