222 Big Game Fishes 
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, Epznephelus drummona-hayt, 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. 
