Watch gigantic fish shoot to surface, snatch stunned angler’s bait off Florida coast
Video showing a leviathan-sized fish grabbing a quick bite to eat off the Florida coast while sending a startled angler into a hysterical frenzy has emerged.
Josh Jorgensen, producer and host of BlacktipH, an extreme fishing video company that chronicles the angler’s quest to seek monster fish, told USA Today Sports that he and his crew had been fishing off the coast over “a sunken wreck” when a massive goliath grouper, made a sudden appearance and gobbled up the bonito being used as bait.
“Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!” Jorgensen exclaims, before cracking up with laughter as the monster fish disappears as suddenly as it had popped to the surface.
Jorgensen said the video was shot months ago, according to USA Today. “The grouper in the video definitely caught me off guard,” Jorgensen said, USA Today reported. “The grouper broke me off in the wreck after it ate my bait.”
Goliath grouper, which can grow to 800 pounds, are considered “off limits” for fishing, according to the Miami Herald. In 2018, Florida wildlife commissioners “refused to lift a nearly two-decade ban on harvesting the fish, citing continued uncertainty about the remaining numbers and bowing to the demands of divers and scientists, who packed a meeting and led an online petition that drew nearly 60,000 signatures,” the Herald reported.
Anglers must release the protected grouper if hooked, Fisheye Sport Fishing says.
