212 Big Game Fishes 



The angler who visits the outer Florida reef 

 and wanders from Biscayne Bay down the 

 islands as far as Loggerhead will find at Key 

 West and all alongshore smacks fitted with wells 

 which are often filled with groupers, principally 

 the red grouper, caught in fairly deep water. 

 When the well is full, the smack squares away 

 for Havana, where the catch is disposed of to the 

 Cubans. The red grouper is a large ungainly 

 fish, ranging up to seventy pounds in weight, this 

 being the largest fish of the kind I have seen, its 

 length being about three and a half feet. It is an 

 omnivorous biter, living near the bottom, in water 

 from twenty to one hundred feet deep, preferring 

 the bases of the great coral reefs, where an abun- 

 dant supply of food is assured. As a hand-line 

 fish at such localities, it affords some sport. The 

 grounds north of Sand, Middle, and East keys of 

 the Tortugas group may always be counted upon, 

 winter and summer, while other fishing-grounds 

 are common all over the Gulf, the fish having a 

 wide range, from Rio Janeiro to Maryland, in- 

 dividuals wandering still farther north. The 

 tackle used is a stout cod -line ; the hook (I used 

 a i o/o Kirby Limerick) is gauged a foot or more 

 above the sinker, the theory being that the latter 



