Recently, a 30-year-old IGFA all-tackle world record fell when Brazilian angler Philip Greenman boated a 53-pound, 12-ounce dusky grouper while fishing out of Angra Dos Reis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
According to IGFA, Greenman was jigging a large soft plastic shad when he came tight with the monster grouper. After a short fight, he saw color and then boated the largest dusky grouper he—or anyone else—had ever seen. The big fish bested the old record by nearly 7 pounds.
The previous record, held since November 1990 by Luca Bonfanti, was caught out of Porto Cervo, Sardinia, Italy. It weighed 46 pounds, 13 ounces.
Like many grouper species, dusky grouper prefer rocky bottom, where they are a mostly solitary ambush predator. They were frequently targeted in the Mediterranean Sea until an alarming decline led to a 2016 ban on fishing for them in areas of the Mediterranean. Their populations are more stable in portions of the eastern and southwestern Atlantic Ocean.
For more record catches, go to IGFA.org.