Look at the pictures, That is one big fish.....

[Don Wray]

Look at the pictures, That is one big fish.....

THIBODAUX  ,  La.

     A medical student who blindfolds his friends to keep his favorite offshore fishing spot secret has

come up with a record-beating fish, a Warsaw  grouper weighing 391 pounds.

 

The giant hauled in by J.J. Tabor of Thibodaux  is 12 ounces above the previous Louisiana  state record,

a state biologist confirmed.

 

"It's been cut down to fillets. The first fillet weighed 53 pounds," Tabor said. He caught it near an oil rig

70 miles south of Fourchon, in 400 feet of water. He won't give a more specific description.

 

"It's J.J.'s secret," said Joey Rodrigue, a friend from  Baton Rouge  who joined Tabor and Tabor's father,

John, on the record-making trip Saturday. "I don't even know where I was. He blindfolds us on the way out".

   

Tabor said he thought at first that his hook with a live hard tail on it had the bottom "until I felt the big

head shake. "Rodriguez steered away from the rig. "I put myself in a harness and just had to lay backand fight, "J.J. Tabor said. "It was about a 15 or 20 minute fight."

     Tabor cleaned the fish late Monday afternoon outside his father's auto repair shop in   Thibodaux .

"We'll split it up," he said.. "I'll make some phone calls and try to get rid of it fresh.

The rest, we'll vacuum pack it and cook it later."

     Tabor says he believes the fish is about 33 years old.

He plans to send an inner-ear bone called the otolith to a university in  Florida  where researchers can help determine the age of the fish.

He hopes to get the results in about four weeks. The world record, caught off  Florida  in 1985, is 436 pounds, 12 ounces.

[frankc420]

Holy carp!  Wonder how long it took to get it in the boat 

[Don Wray]

I had more pictures and had fixed the 2 colors in the text but the satellite failed right in the middle.

[Don Wray]

Here's more:

[scubadowop]

I'd crap my wetsuit if I ran into that while diving.

[frankc420]

I'd crap my wetsuit if I ran into that while diving.

You and me both!