How to Judge Size of Goliath??? - The Hull Truth

Duffy's · 09-05-2010, 06:11 PM

So we were out fishing at the Shrimpboat wreck today catching amberjacks and my 11 year olds pinfish got eaten by something big. My boy gave up the rod after a few minutes so then it was dads turn. Locked down the drag on the reel and laid two thumbs on as well. Didn't stop the long runs, just got the drag HOT

. We passed the rod around to let some friends fight some also and 30 minutes later our suspicions were correct. A BIG goliath came to the surface and we had no idea how the judge his size. All we had to measure with was a folding law stick. We could lay the 3 section stick down his side two plus times head to tail so that is 6+ feet. We did not measure him around but he was pretty fat. We are guessing him to be about 400 pounds but that is only compared to others reports of size. I was just wondering if there was a better way of judging the size more accurately. Any Help????

bumster · 09-05-2010, 06:21 PM

Next time take a piece of mono or whatever youre using and wrap it around his midsection and cut it. Then whan you get home take the length measurement you had and with the piece of mono you have a very accurate girth

Duffy's · 09-05-2010, 06:27 PM

Oh duh...that should have been more obvious...Thanks.

Duffy's · 09-07-2010, 08:53 AM

Anybody know what a 6 foot Goliath should weigh???

Duffy's · 09-09-2010, 08:22 PM

O.K. maybe a pic may help. My boy is still wondering how much his fish weighed and we can only guess the weight but would like help with a more accurate weight range if possible.

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runabout · 09-09-2010, 09:25 PM

I would say that one is in the 150-200 lb range. I have seen a few black grouper brought up that went just over 100 lbs (actually weighed, not estimated) that were 5 ft and a little more girth than the GG pictured. By the way, I was out spearing on the shrimp boat wreck (if it's the same one, about 120' and out of Clearwater Pass) a few weeks ago and were greeted by no less than 14 GG's. Not much else there except the GG's and few small AJ's. They seem to be getting out of hand, dove the Mexican Pride that same day and there were about 16 GG's on it.

Duffy's · 09-09-2010, 09:51 PM

Yes that is the same place. We were anchored just east of the actual wreck about 50 yards and I think that is the reason we were able to get him to the boat. Every run he made was to toward all the other boats over the wreck but could never quite get there. There were AJ all over the sounder and they were quick to eat. We were out there on Sunday just before the bad weather pushed us back in. Thanks for the input on the size, we were comparing ours to the claimed weights of the ones you see caught on the tv and youtube. I was in doubt that it would really weigh that much but since we followed all the rules and left him in the water so we had little to go by.

runabout · 09-09-2010, 10:53 PM

Just to give you an idea, this is a confirmed (not estimated) 125 lb grouper. If you think that Goliath looked big on the surface, you should see them on the bottom.....especially when there are 12-13 of them staring you down. I have seen them 400-600 pounds (estimated) and the look like a mini van under there and they don't feel the least bit intimidated and will just stare you down. You can go right up to them and poke them and they just look at you.

Duffy's · 09-09-2010, 11:23 PM

I believe our guess was waaaay wrong. I think the boys on T.V. might be stretching their estimates just a bit. Was that one hooked or did you shoot him?

runabout · 09-10-2010, 06:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duffy's

I believe our guess was waaaay wrong. I think the boys on T.V. might be stretching their estimates just a bit. Was that one hooked or did you shoot him?

Ask any woman you know and they will tell you men have been over stating size for years

I did neither to that fish, but the one that brought him up put a spear through him.

UNCFISH · 09-10-2010, 06:27 AM

Duffy, i'd guess your fish would be about 275+ lbs. You can see in the link below that Warsaws (i know yours was a Goliath) get to 120 lbs at just under 5 feet.

http://www.rodnreel.com/fishcharts/F....asp?FishID=39

I would guess at 6 ft, that you'd be dealing with a 275+ lb fish. Also, just by googling around a bit i found this:

"I measured him at 71” with a girth of 56”. If you apply the standard fish weight calculating formula of length X girth squared divided by 800 you get 278# or about the average size of an adult Jewfish. My measurements may have been off by a few inches since I measured him hanging over the side of the boat. Any you cut it though, he was one big fish."

That's about the same size as yours and 278 lbs. so maybe yours was a bit bigger, maybe pushing 300 lbs. A massive fish and well done to you guys. I don't think it looks like a 400 lber, but who cares. it's an amazing catch