November 13, 2007
THIBODAUX , La. –A medical student who blindfolds his friends to keep his
favorite offshore fishing spot secret has come up with a record-beating
fish — a warsaw grouper weighing 359.1 pounds.
The giant hauled in by J.J. Tabor of Thibodaux is 12 ounces above the
previous Louisiana state record, a state biologist confirmed.
It\’s been cut down to fillets. The first fillet weighed 53 pounds, Tabor
said.
He caught it near an oil rig 70 miles south of Fourchon, in 400 feet of
water. He won\’t give a more specific description.
\’It\’s J.J.\’s secret,\’ said Joey Rodrigue, a friend from Baton Rouge who
joined Tabor and Tabor\’s father, John, on the record-making trip Saturday.
\’I don\’t even know where I was. He blindfolds us on the way out.\’
Tabor said he thought at first that his hook with a live hardtail on it
had it the bottom \’until I felt the big head shake.\’
Rodrigue steered away from the rig.
\’I put myself in a harness and just had to lay back and fight,\’ J.J. Tabor
said. \’It was about a 15 or 20 minute fight.\’
Tabor cleaned the fish late Monday afternoon outside his father\’s auto
repair shop in Thibodaux. \’We\’ll split it up,\’ he said. \’I\’ll make some
phone calls and try to get rid of it fresh. The rest, we\’ll vacuum pack it
and cook it later.\’
Tabor says he believes t he fish is about 33 years old. He plans to send
an inner-ear bone called the otolith to a university in Florida where
researchers can help determine the age of the fish. He hopes to get the
results in about four weeks.
The world record, caught off Florida in 1985, is 436 pounds, 12 ounces.
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