Giant Fish of Florida 



CHANNEL BASS (Scicenops ocellatus) AND BLACK GROUPER 

 (Gairupa nigrata) 



The channel bass, or red drum, is a bronze fish that runs 

 up to 40 or 50 Ib. weight, and gives good sport on a rod 

 in the surf. So many of the smaller sporting fish are caught in 

 the surf on the Florida coast, that I have often wondered 

 whether this is a merely local habit, due to their dread 

 of the sharks outside, or whether indeed sea-fishermen at 

 home neglect the more productive surf, in their haste to 

 fish the extreme end of a long pier or the deeper waters 

 attainable in boats. 



The black grouper is a great trouble to the tarpon fisher, 

 for on some days it seizes bait after bait, and at once darts into 

 some convenient crevice in the coral. The puzzled angler 

 strikes again and again, and each time finds himself hitched 

 into the rock, which often entails the loss of all his tackle with 

 many feet of line. Only the old hand knows the real source 

 of the trouble and promptly changes his ground, but as those 

 fish are more or less numerous all through the pass, the real 

 secret of avoiding them is to fish a few feet higher. 



