Historic 540lb Grouper shot in 1970 is Back in St. Lucia
Historic 540lb Grouper shot in 1970 is Back in St. Lucia: we have a friend, Wessel, who had a vessel moored at our place a while. One day, he says to us, are we interested in seeing his Dad’s historic and record grouper shot near Cape Vidal?
“Sure thing”, came the very quick answer.
Next thing, Wessel pitches up with this HUGE grouper mount, so big he had to use his vessel’s trailer to bring it around. Even in disrepair, this thing was mightily impressive. So we offloaded it with the idea of a restoration. But that is how far we got.
Until some folks in St. Lucia, KZN, heard about the massive fish’s whereabouts and got in touch. Next thing, this huge fish was in the back of my folks’ car and off they went to Leopard Lodge, in St. Lucia, to deliver the spectacle. For full restoration. And where you will be able to check the fish in all its glory first-hand.
Then…
Dave Nel sent me this…
Written By Bill Fowler…
The spearfishing during the past couple of weeks had been improving. The previous Sunday, John Fry had shot a 50 lb Cuda and Brian a web 18 lb one. On Friday, Hennie Coetzee finished work late in the group which delayed our start for St Lucia by an hour. We always spend Friday nights at St Lucia before going to Cape Vidal and up the beach on Saturday morning. Frequenting our usual pub, conversation changed from spearfishing to darts and we surprised all by beating much better players like Brian Palmer, Piet Viviers and myself! He argued that it was a good omen as he was going to shoot a big one the following day.
Saturday broke a clear and calm day with prospects for spearfishing looking excellent when we swung into the little bay off Cape Vidal. We dived on the outer reef a couple of miles North of Cape Vidal and set off in our two tandems. There were about 500+ kgs. in evidence — a good indication of fish life.
On getting into the surf we bumped into a cheeky Blackfin which hung around the surf at the following day sharks had a feast. The next thing we shot two 400 lb Hammerhead sharks and rather attached to my gun and Queenfish. We moved off to the main reef to meet the rest of the weekend’s action.
The reef was alive with fish and Hennie was the first to shoot a good size grouper. It suddenly came to life and made off for the reef, towing Hennie behind it. Getting to the reef it started looking for a cave but being such a big grouper could not find a hole big enough to swim into, so it decided to swim out to sea where there must be a deeper and bigger reef.
Hennie, trying to stop it, was towed for first after it for three hundred yards, while we followed swimming as fast as we could, in order to keep up with him. At this stage the fish seemed to be getting tired and slowed. So did Hennie, and the last scene was Hennie swimming on the bottom and one on top of the water — in a complete stalemate.
Much later, picking his head out of the water Hennie asked, “What do I do now?”
“Hurry up and put it on your float so that we can get some more,” answered Piet jokingly.
After many more dives with his snorkel, Hennie tried to get Mr Grouper up to the surface, but to no avail. He then started to move back to shore. For every twenty meters gained, the fish took him back ten meters.
While crossing the reef and bass again Hennie made an attempt to get a rope around the fish and succeeded. Brian assisted by Hennie after a long and pulling him the 500 yards back to shore. Just before reaching the beach the fish made one more attempt to swim out to sea and Hennie had to dive again to get it up to surface. Saved from the surf, the fish was dragged up the beach and measured.
Mr Grouper was the biggest fish shot in the area to date. Just over 7 ft long and 6 ft 10 in girth, it was taken to the local pub for weighing. The scale at St Lucia for the previous record was 440 lbs. and the fish was too heavy for it.
“Oh! About 250 lbs,” I said.
“No, I think it weighs over 500 lbs,” stated Piet.
“Oh! I think it weighs exactly 500 lbs,” stated Hennie.
After weighing, the fish tipped the scales at 540 lbs, beating the previous St Lucia record by over 100 lbs. It was the first fish of over 500 lbs shot by a South African. Rex Williams took the second biggest fish in St Lucia, is having the 7′ 2″ length and 6′ 10″ girth monster mounted, and it will decorate his pub wall — a monument to spearfishing and Hennie Coetzee.
Thank you Dave and everyone else involved in taking this mighty memory home!
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