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 bonact 
(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 
