Paul Hartman
When Reegan Werner left the dock for a day of deep-sea fishing in the Gulf of Mexico near Marco Island, she said a silent prayer that she would get a big one. Six hours later, she landed a Goliath Grouper that was 83” long with a 75” girth and calculated weight of 583 pounds! This 16-year-old girl from Farmington, Minnesota had just landed the largest grouper ever caught by a female angler. The current all tackle IFGA woman’s world record is a 366-pound fish caught by Betsy Walker off Guayabo, Panama on February 8, 1965. Reegan’s grouper out weighted the current record by 217 pounds! The entire battle with this massive fish lasted just 15 intense minutes. Goliath grouper have been protected from harvest since 1990, so this fish was quickly released after being unhooked.
Reegan, her brother Owen, their mother Kimberly and step-father Paul Hartman made a 29 hour drive straight down to Marco Island to buy a used 22’ Pathfinder boat from local Captain – Ben Olsen. When they arrived, Ben warned them that stormy weather was going to impact their fishing later in the week and suggested they do any off-shore fishing in the first couple of days. The next morning the group stopped and caught threadfin minnows to use for bait as they worked their way out to spots 40-50 miles offshore. Owen tied a balloon on the first line out to keep the bait up near the surface. The second line was clipped to an underwater camera called an AquaVu and the camera was slowly lowered down, watching on the screen in the boat, as the bait descended toward the bottom. As the bait approached bottom Owen shouted that a giant fish had just eaten the bait in a single gulp! Kimberly started backing the boat away from the structure while Paul slowly towed the unhappy fish to smooth bottom. Reegan scrambled to get the fish fighting belt tightened on then grabbed the rod and the battle began!
Reegan is an athlete, playing hockey, lacrosse and tennis, but weighing only 115 pounds created a serious challenge since she was connected to a fish weighing 5 times what she does. Once the grouper realized it was hooked, it began thrashing and surging and Reegan took a seat on the cooler to keep from being pulled overboard. They had an extra-heavy Penn roller guide rod and the reel was a Penn International loaded with 250# Berkley braided line with the drag locked down tight. After just 10 minutes this massive fish was coming into view just 40’ down in the clear blue Gulf waters. Reegan knew the fish was massive the second she started fighting it, but she was certain that she would eventually win the battle. “I had the confidence” she said. Beating big fish is as much a mental game as it is physical, there is no room for mistakes and she played everything perfectly.
Working the fish hard for another 5 minutes, each exchange of line between angler and fish slowly bringing the fish closer and closer to the boat. After just 15 minutes of fighting, Paul was able to grab the 400# cable leader and the battle was over. The fish was carefully measured and a few photos were taken before the fish was unhooked and released as the fish drenched them all as it raced back to bottom. Paul had a funny feeling that they had just caught “My Lord”. This was the name given to a massive grouper they had encountered on this spot several times on prior trips because each time it showed up all anyone could say is “MY LORD, look at that”. Paul’s friend, Mark Stock had also caught that same goliath grouper with Paul, his dad Warren and Captain Olsen on April 25 of 2019, in the same spot with the same bait! At the time, its length was 80” and girth was 73” making it a 533-pound fish; now just 14 months later is was 50 pounds heavier! Back on shore photos were compared and Reegan’s fish was indeed confirmed to be “My Lord”. It is so cool knowing all of these fish by name, but it makes Paul nervous that if these are ever opened back up to harvest, that the few goliath groupers that are out in the Gulf waters will quickly become another story about the “good old days”.
