222 Big Game Fisbes 



grouper in the market at Key West which 

 weighed over ten or fifteen pounds. The largest 

 fishes were often rejected, as they could not be 

 conveniently disposed of ; hence few except reef 

 fishermen know that many of the groupers attain 

 such large dimensions or are endowed with game 

 qualities. 



Another fine and attractive grouper, the spotted 

 grouper, Epinephelus drummond-hayi, may be 

 classed with the large game fishes, specimens of 

 which have been caught which weighed forty 

 and fifty pounds ; but the average weight of the 

 species caught by me off East Key was but 

 twenty-five pounds. The young fish of ten or 

 fifteen pounds, often taken about large coral 

 heads, afforded good sport. There are numerous 

 small groupers, snappers, and grunts, belonging to 

 the Florida fishing-grounds, which while com- 

 paratively unknown, would repay the angler who 

 spends the winter and spring along the Florida 

 reef. 



