Florida Fish Report

We're in the middle of the long range season, at the All-Star break for the Fred Hall Shows, if you will. The two boats out fishing at the moment are Royal Star, at Clipperton Atoll, and Intrepid, on her way south for several trips in Panama. Royal Polaris will be out looking, not for fish, but for whales, seabirds and other pelagic critters.

On recent occasions dock reporter I've seen some interesting things coming off the boats. Several times since big tuna season began anglers have asked me the identity of goldspotted sand bass, snowy grouper and needlefish, all common in the tropics, but not much seen up here in the temperate zone.

Early in February I saw Giovanni Braida, who was just off the Royal Polaris, loading a wahoo into his vehicle that looked as though it had been unzipped along its keel from gullet to tail. "I've seen a lot of gaff-ripped fish," I said to him, "but I've never seen one quite like that. What happened? I suppose he came in pretty easy after that." "Hell, no!" said Braida. "It just made him really mad. He took off then, and it was a long time before I got him back."