220 Big Game Fishes 



This grouper attains a weight of six hundred 

 pounds, possibly more. It is found in Brazil, 

 Cuba, Porto Rico, and the islands of the Carib- 

 bean Sea, ranging as far north as Pensacola and 

 the mouth of the St. Johns River; on the west- 

 ern Gulf coast it has various names. The large 

 individuals are called the black jewfish down the 

 reef; smaller ones of one hundred and forty or 

 fifty pounds, by some fishermen, black groupers. 

 The term " black " is to some extent a misnomer, 

 as, while the fish appears black as it rises, its real 

 color, at least in specimens I have observed, is 

 a deep grayish or orange brown, or olive. Along 

 this reef, and particularly near an old wreck a 

 mile from Bird Key in the Tortugas group, 

 where the barrier reef deepened, I took numbers 

 of a smaller black grouper, Mycteroperca bonaci 

 (Poey), a fish ranging from twenty to forty-five 

 pounds, and found them very gamy. Crayfish 

 bait was the most alluring. The tail of a cray- 

 fish, which I grained on the open reef early in 

 the morning, was crushed on the side, which 

 splits the shell down the back and renders it 

 easy to open. This was cut into two long baits. 

 The line used was a number twenty-one, attached 

 to a three-foot, slender, copper-wire leader or 



