“I was fishing out of Grand Isle with my dad and Dr. Bo Grafton. We were deep dropping for grouper when I hooked into what felt like an absolute tank. After a tough fight, we finally got the fish to the surface and everyone on the boat thought we had landed a giant Warsaw grouper.
Back at camp, the fish weighed 78 pounds, and we cleaned it without thinking much more about it. Later that night, after posting photos, several charter captains reached out and told us it wasn’t a Warsaw at all. It was a snowy grouper.
After doing some research, we discovered that a 78-pound snowy grouper would have been larger than the current world-record snowy grouper. My dad had to hold the fish for the photo because it was simply too heavy for me to lift by myself.
Even though we didn’t know what we had at the time, I’ll never forget the experience. A special thanks to my dad and Dr. Bo Grafton for an unforgettable trip out of Grand Isle.”
-Dax Hidalgo, 14, of Thibodaux