Goliath Grouper: Size, Record, Rules, How to Catch One

A huge goliath grouper beside a sunken wreck, its gray body covered in black spots and dark blotches, small eye and wide mouth facing the camera, divers behind it in blue water — Photo: Dan Schofield, iNaturalist observation 140275469 (CC BY 4.0)

The goliath grouper is the biggest grouper in the Atlantic: up to 8 ft (2.4 m) and 800 lb (363 kg). In Florida you’ll find them around bridges, docks, wrecks and reefs, mostly in the south of the state. You can hook one almost anywhere they live. You can keep one only with a lottery permit, and only a young fish of 24 to 36 inches.

In 2023, the first year, Florida handed out 200 permits to keep a goliath grouper. Only 26 of the winners kept one.

How big do goliath grouper get?

Big. FWC puts the top end at 8 ft and 800 lb, and NOAA gives the same weight. That’s the largest grouper in the western Atlantic.

The biggest one ever caught on rod and reel weighed 680 lb (308.44 kg). Lynn Joyner landed it off Fernandina Beach, Florida, on May 20, 1961. It’s still the IGFA all-tackle world record and Florida’s state record, and it sits on our list of the biggest fish ever caught. It came on 80 lb line, so it holds that line-class record too.

That record won’t fall soon. Look at the rest of the IGFA list and every goliath record over 300 lb is old. They were all set between 1956 and 1981, before the harvest closed in 1990.

Line class	Record	Year	Where
6 lb	309 lb 8 oz (140.38 kg)	1977	Flamingo, Florida
12 lb	365 lb 8 oz (165.78 kg)	1975	Flamingo, Florida
20 lb	344 lb 12 oz (156.37 kg)	1976	Flamingo, Florida
30 lb	430 lb (195.04 kg)	1967	Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
50 lb	369 lb (167.37 kg)	1956	Marathon, Florida
80 lb	680 lb (308.44 kg)	1961	Fernandina Beach, Florida
130 lb	455 lb 8 oz (206.61 kg)	1981	Marco Island, Florida

Men’s line-class records over 300 lb for goliath grouper, IGFA World Record Search, read November 14, 2026.

Yes, that first record is a 309 lb fish on 6 lb line. Kenny Bittner caught it at Flamingo, Florida, in 1977.

How do you tell a goliath from other grouper?

Check the size first, then the spots and the tail. A goliath has tiny dark spots on the head and fins, irregular dark bars down the sides, small eyes set forward, and a rounded tail. FWC calls out one more mark: the dorsal spines are low and all nearly the same height.

The young ones are the easiest to spot. FWC says a goliath has five dark bands, and they show best on small fish.

A young goliath grouper with a mottled yellow and black body swims away from the camera between the barnacle-covered pilings of a dock in clear, shallow water

A young goliath between dock pilings, its dark bands plain to see. Photo: Marissa Balfour, iNaturalist observation 87945603 (CC0)

The fish people mix it up with is the Warsaw grouper, the other giant. Here’s how to call it.

Mark	Goliath	Warsaw
Dorsal spines	Low, all nearly the same height	Second spine very high, taller than the third
Tail	Rounded	Squared off
Color	Spots on head and fins, dark bars on the sides	One even color, no real markings
Where	Shallow structure, bridges, docks, wrecks	Rocky bottom in water over 200 ft (61 m)

Against the grouper you’d keep, size settles it fast. Gag, red and black grouper max out far smaller. Our grouper guide has the ID table for all seven US species, with their size and bag rules.

Where do goliath grouper live?

Florida is the place. FWC says they’re more common in the south of the state than in the north. NOAA lists the Gulf, the Florida Keys, the Bahamas, most of the Caribbean and most of Brazil’s coast. Now and then one turns up as far north as Massachusetts or Maine.

Where in the water depends on age.

Young fish live in estuaries and mangroves for up to 5 or 6 years. FWC names the Ten Thousand Islands in southwest Florida as a center for them. They also sit under bridges and docks and on artificial reefs.
Adults move out to shallow reefs, then to reefs and wrecks offshore. FWC says they like high relief: overhangs, ledges, bridges, piers and shipwrecks.
Depth: the IGFA says they’re usually inside the 12-fathom line, about 72 ft (22 m), though they can go deeper.

Out of the spawning season an adult keeps to itself. FWC calls them solitary, sedentary and territorial. That’s why the same big fish lives on the same wreck, and why it’s right there when you hook a snapper.

In summer that changes. In the eastern Gulf, goliath gather to spawn in groups of 100 or more on wrecks, rock ledges and patch reefs, July through September. They may swim up to 62 miles (100 km) from inshore reefs to get there. Spawning runs June to October overall, FWC says, with the peak in July, August and September.

Can you keep a goliath grouper?

Only in Florida state waters, only with a permit, and only a young one. Federal waters are closed. Goliath “may not be harvested or possessed” in the Gulf or the South Atlantic federal zone, and that’s been the rule since 1990. In Florida, harvest is prohibited without a permit.

Florida’s Goliath Harvest Program opened in 2023. Here’s how it works in 2026.

Rule	What it says
Permits	200 a year, by random-draw lottery. Up to 50 fish from Everglades National Park
Apply	October 1–15 each year, at GoOutdoorsFlorida.com or a license agent. $10 to apply
If you win	$150 for a Florida resident, $500 for a nonresident. Permit and tag can’t be transferred
The fish	1 per person per season, 24–36 in (61–91 cm) total length
Season	March 1 to May 31
Gear	Hook and line only. Non-offset, non-stainless circle hooks with natural bait. A dehooking device for any goliath you release
Closed	State waters of Martin County, St. Lucie River included, south through the Atlantic coast of the Keys. Dry Tortugas National Park. All federal waters
After	Tag the lower jaw at once. Report within 24 hours and send in a fin clip if your permit asks for one. No fish? Report “no harvest” within 24 hours after the season ends

Miss the October window and you wait a year. The draw is for the season the next spring.

In 2023, the first season, only 26 of 200 permit holders kept a fish, Florida Sportsman reported. The average one was 31 in. Most came from two counties: 11 from Collier and 10 from Monroe. St. Lucie, Manatee, Volusia and Indian River had one each. That’s the only season we’ve found a count for.

There are two permit types. Category I lets you fish all open areas, Everglades National Park included. Category II covers the same areas minus the park. You can apply for both but win only one.

No one is exempt. FWC says you need the goliath permit even if you’re under 16, over 65 or hold a lifetime license. You need a saltwater fishing license too, unless you’re exempt from that. A fishing or hunting violation on your record in the past five years keeps you out of the draw. So does a harvest report you never filed on an earlier permit.

Why the slot is so small: those are kids. FWC numbers quoted by Florida Sportsman put a 24-inch goliath at 2 to 4 years old and a 36-inch fish at about 4 to 5. The slot stops right where FWC says goliath first mature: about 36 inches, at 5 or 6 years. Males mature at about 42 inches, females at 47 to 53 inches and 6 to 7 years.

Chart of goliath grouper sizes in inches: the harvest slot from 24 to 36 inches, males mature at about 42, females at 47 to 53, and the species reaches 96 inches, or 8 feet

FWC says plainly what the lottery is for and what it isn’t. Adults stay off-limits statewide, and so do goliath in the busy dive areas. The harvest “is not intended to address fishing depredation concerns.” It won’t stop a big goliath from eating your snapper.

How do you catch a goliath grouper?

Fish a natural bait on the bottom, tight to structure. They eat what’s slow and easy. FWC says calico crabs make up most of the diet, plus other shellfish and fish. A goliath sucks prey in whole with a fast open of that huge mouth. Now and then one will grab a fish struggling on a line. FWC says they haven’t been shown to chase down fast fish like snapper.

For a slot fish, go inshore. Captain Tim Simos of Fort Pierce told Florida Sportsman he skips the ocean reefs and wrecks, because that’s where the big ones are. Fish just inside the inlet instead, he says: the edges of the channel in 15 feet or so, or the first bridges you come to. He also says clear water hurts your odds of a big goliath far more than a small one. Given the choice, he’d fish the incoming tide. He figures he could catch a slot fish on eight trips out of ten.

His tackle is heavy for a 3 ft fish, because a much bigger goliath can still take the bait.

Part	Simos’ pick for a slot goliath
Reel	Large spinning reel, such as a PENN 6500 or 7500
Line	80 lb braid
Leader	9 to 10 ft of 200 to 400 lb test
Hook	Eagle Claw 8/0 to 11/0 black or bronze circle hook
Weight	2 or 3 oz, on a sliding knocker rig or tied 3 ft above the bait with waxed nylon. No swivels
Bait	Downsize: a pinfish or a mullet

On a knocker rig the weight slides right down to the bait. The program requires circle hooks that are non-offset and non-stainless when you fish natural bait, so check the package for both. Our hook size chart shows how big an 8/0 to 11/0 really is.

For a big one, you’re fishing catch and release. Every goliath over the slot goes back, permit or not. The big fish are on the ocean reefs and wrecks, Simos says, and that’s where snapper and grouper anglers run into them. Anglers have a common refrain, Florida Sportsman says. You “can’t get a snapper or grouper to the surface before a goliath grouper helps itself to the catch.”

How do you release a goliath grouper?

Leave it in the water. That’s FWC’s first rule, and it’s not about manners. “The skeletal structure of a large goliath grouper cannot support its weight out of the water,” FWC says. Pull one onto the boat and it may die from the injuries.

A large goliath grouper on its side at the surface, seen from above, its broad tan body and rounded tail washed by the water

A goliath at the surface, still in the water. Photo: Dominic Alianelli, iNaturalist observation 24794052 (CC0)

What to do, by FWC:

Release it right away, alive and unharmed. Only a permit holder with a legal slot fish can keep one.
Keep it in the water, big or small. FWC asks you to unhook small goliath in the water too.
In South Atlantic federal waters, the law goes further. Cut the line and release it without taking it out of the water.
If it’s bloated from the depth, the sign of barotrauma, send it back down with a descending device or venting tool.
Take a photo only if it doesn’t slow the release in any way.

Our catch and release guide covers the rest of handling a fish you’re putting back.

Is goliath grouper good to eat?

Hardly anyone gets the chance: harvest has been closed since 1990, and the lottery allows 200 fish a year. If you win a permit, think about mercury first.

FSU’s Coastal and Marine Laboratory tested young and adult goliath off both Florida coasts. They had “extraordinarily high” mercury, higher than any other grouper in the western Atlantic and the Gulf. That’s a fish you’d want to check against Florida’s fish consumption advice before it goes on the grill.

Why are goliath grouper protected?

Because they were nearly fished out. Anglers and commercial boats chased them from at least the late 1800s. By 1990 the population in the Southeast had fallen almost to extinction, FSU says, mostly from overfishing and habitat loss.

FWC lists what makes them easy to overfish. They gather in big numbers at the same spots every year to spawn. They live long. Their nursery mangroves keep shrinking. And they die in big events: cold snaps and red tide.

FSU says water below 51 °F (11 °C) has killed off every young fish born in a year. Red tide in Lee and Collier counties in 2003 and 2005 left large goliath dead on southwest Florida beaches. NOAA notes a few were mistaken for baby manatees.

Here’s how the protection played out:

1990: harvest closed in federal waters of the Southeast and in Florida.
1991: NOAA named the goliath, then still called jewfish, a candidate for the Endangered Species Act.
2006: NOAA took it off its species of concern list, crediting the success of the harvest ban.
2011: a petition to list it as threatened or endangered failed. NOAA found it didn’t warrant listing.
2023: Florida opened its small harvest lottery.

FWC doesn’t run a normal stock assessment on goliath. Since 2018 it has tracked five measures instead, from adult numbers on natural reefs to how many older fish are in the population.

The biology behind the fishing

A goliath lives a long time. FWC thinks the average is 30 to 50 years. The oldest one aged so far was at least 37. Once it’s full grown, only large sharks prey on it. Before that, barracuda, king mackerel, moray eels and sandbar and hammerhead sharks can take one, FWC says.

The young settle in mangrove leaf litter and stay in the mangroves for 5 or 6 years. Then they move to shallow reefs and on to the adults offshore. On those reefs a goliath digs out sand around the base. FSU says that adds to the structure and brings more kinds of fish to the spot.

For the other six groupers and the rules on each, start at our grouper guide.

Sources (12)

Show all 12 sources