I can't wait to tell you all about Ed Fitzwilliams and his "Fish of a Lifetime." How many of you have ever sat back watching a fishing show on TV and saw the host catch a huge fish? What did you say to yourself? If you are anything like me you probably asked yourself what it would be like to hook, battle, and land that great fish. You might say to yourself, "Could I really do that?" or maybe you would say, "What would it take to get that beautiful fish in?" You may even ask yourself, "How proud is that guy on TV of that great fish," or you may say to yourself "How happy would I be?" Come to think of it, you may have even thought to yourself, "That fish would have pulled me overboard." I know I have looked at some pictures in the magazines and been amazed at the huge Tuna, Marlin, Swordfish, Sharks, and even grouper. It is impossible to understand what the angler went through to land the great fish. Well, one angler got his chance at catching one of the aforementioned great fish and here is his story.

      It was a cool Friday morning the second day after a frigid front had just swept through SW Florida. Ed and I agreed the day before that I would meet him and his lovely wife Kathy and three cute daughters Molly, Mady, and Mikailey at 9:00am at Barnacle Phils on North Captiva. When I arrived the whole family was all smiles and ready to go. Ed and I made the decision when we were out the day before that we would take the girls back up the river for some of the phenomenal Lady fishing we had the day before. Sure enough once we got to the spot the bite was on and nearly every cast at least one person would get a bite. At first Ed would do the casting and let the girls reel in the Lady once he hooked it. Eventually the girls wanted more action and wouldn't be satisfied unless they were cast and reeling too. The all three did a great job and we stopped filling the well with Lady's for bait after the 3rd or 4th one. Naturally the girls wanted to keep every fish they caught but we didn't need anymore so we through the rest back.

     Armed with a well full of lively ladies we headed to my favorite Jewfish/Goliath Grouper spot. The water temp was a cool 64 degrees. I really didn't know what to expect from the behemoths that make themselves home there because the day before Ed and I fished the hole hard and received nothing for our efforts. Not even one bite. However, the temp had started out at a very low 58 degrees on the previous morning, that may have had a huge factor on the appetite of the Goliaths. I opened the well and grabbed a 2 and a half foot Ladyfish from it. It was one of the biggest Ladyfish I have seen in awhile. I hooked the Ladyfish through the bottom jaw with a 12/0 Eagle Claw Titan Super Strength Hook. The Eagle Claw hook was tied to 300 pound leader with and 8oz egg sinker. The leader was double uni to uni knotted with 200 pound test Fins braided line. The line was spooled on a Penn GLS 45 Senator Lever Drag reel. The reel was matted with a 30 to 50 pound class, seven foot, Cape Fear Man O' War Rod.

     Next I maneuvered the Shearwater in front of the structure and had Ed drop his huge Ladyfish down to the Goliath's Lair.  While I was fighting the ripping incoming current with the Min Kota 74 pound thrust trolling motor to keep the boat in place, Ed's bait was inhaled. I was unaware of the fact that he was hooked up and when I looked back Ed was bright red thumbing the spooling as hard as he could. The Man O' War rod was nearly bent double and Ed was in the best big fish fighting position he could be in. I holler back to Ed "Don't let the fish take line or he was bust you off in the structure!" Ed hollers back "Capt Ben I am doing everything I can!" I knew he was doing the best he could and I was just trying to coach him up. The enormous Goliath kept trying to take us in the structure and break us off. I had the trolling motor going full force forward and he has us in a standstill or going backwards. I kept maneuvering the boat from left to right while Ed strained every muscle in his body to keep the monster sized fish from taking line and busting him off in the pilings.

     Eventually, Ed began to get very weary. Ed is about 200 pounds and is in great shape for a 43 year old. He is a former football and lacrosse player who has kept his body in good condition over the years. But even a body in good condition can't hold up to the force a huge beast like this can put on it. When the Goliath would make a lunge for cover Ed would have to use all the strength in his body to keep the rod tip up and the reel spool from giving away any line. The skin on Ed's thumb was gone after the first 5 minutes of the fight. The Goliath just burned the line right through his thumb two or three times. Once his thumb was out of skin he switched his grip over and put all four of his fingers on the spool. His youngest daughter was bellowing out tears, she was in fear for her dad going overboard and getting eaten by the fish on the end of his line. Kathy his wife did a great job of trying to comfort her. Every time Ed would holler out in an aggressive manner Maddy would cry even louder which made the moment even more stressful on Ed.

     All of the sudden the Goliath made a dash towards another part of the structure and we were in trouble. I hollered back at Ed, "Stop the fish you can't let him have any line!" Ed replied in an exasperated voice, "There is nothing I can do Captain, he is just too strong." I couldn't accept that from Ed and made the decision to crank up the Yamaha and try to maneuver the Shearwater over the Goliath so we could gain some of the line and skin back from Ed's fingers onto the spool. The move worked and we were able to get back on top of the fish and gain 10 or 15 feet of line back.

     Unfortunately when I went to the helm to direct the Shearwater over the Goliath the current began to sweep the front of the boat around towards the structure. I then made a mad dash to the front of the boat to the trolling motor so I could spin us back towards the right direction. At that time, I decided we had to get away from the structure to have any shot at landing this fish. I let Ed know what my intentions were and began to head away. Once again the Goliath gets spunky and heads for home. The Goliath pins the Cape Fear to the gunnel and starts peeling off line. Ed then slams his whole hand into the Penn reel and tries to stop it. When he put his whole hand on the reel spool the Goliath pulled his fingers into the reel and jammed them inside the reel. Ed screamed out in agony and even dropped an F-Bomb. The next thing I know his little girl Mikailey who is the middle one starts bellowing out tears. Now both of the younger girls are screaming tears for their stressed out Daddy. Ed did a great job of calming the girls down by telling them he is okay and that he is really having a good time even though it is very intense.

Now that the girls are calm we turn our attentions back towards the behemoth that is kicking Ed's tail 20 feet below us. I take a second shot at direction the Goliath away from the structure. I direct Ed to thumb the spool as hard as he can and put as much pressure on the fish as he possibly can. As I spin the boat around the line starts to peel and Ed just couldn't move like he needed to in order to keep the fish from getting in the structure. I left the helm and ran up to Ed and helped him thumb the spool so we could stop this monster from getting the best of us. We were able to do it, Ed let me have the rod for a split second while he quickly got to the other side of the boat to continue the fight. I ran back to the helm just in time to finish maneuvering the Goliath away from the structure.

At that point we were approximately 35 minutes into the fight. I told Ed "Now that we have cleared the structure it is just you and the fish, nothing else to be worried about." Ed seemed to find his third and fourth wind then. While he was pumping and thumbing the spool to get the giant fish up he said, "That 700 pound Marlin I caught was an absolute piece of cake compared to this!" Mano y Mano, you versus the fish is probably the hardest type fishing there is.

     By this time we had attracted an audience. There were 5 or 10 boats who hung around to watch a lot of the fight but only one was still standing by. Ed began to pump and reel as hard as he could. After enough pumping and reeling Ed was able to get the beast to surface. The Goliath was just enormous. It was the biggest one I have ever seen in person.

     Understandably Ed thought his work was nearly completed. He was quite wrong though. Every time he would get the fish up it would surge back to the bottom. He did manage to subdue the giant though. When we first saw it at the side of the boat we all realized what a behemoth Ed just caught.

     We now all understood why it was so tough on him and how much pain and anguish he just went through to accomplish such an amazing feat. One of the first things he did when the battle was over was thank his family for being cooperative during the battle. He knew if things had stayed the same as they were when the little girls were screaming he could have never had accomplished his mission.

     We decided there was no way we could even fathom bringing such a giant on the boat so we decided to pull the Goliath to a nearby flat and revive it. Just look at the size of it's mouth. That Ladyfish was two and a half feet long, it looks like a sardine hanging out of his mouth.

Ed and I decided to hop in the water to revive the Giant Goliath Grouper. We took the length and girth measurements of the fish with Teamfish leader because our 60 inch measuring tape wasn't even close to being long enough for the job. The length was an astounding 81 inches and the girth was just as impressive coming in at 72 inches. Using the weight formula Ed said the fish weighed 524 pounds and 8ozs.

     I just could not believe how heavy this fish actually was. Usually when you hop in the water it is very easy to maneuver a fish around so you can revive it and take pictures. It took all of Ed's remaining strength just to get the Giant Goliath upright so we could take this great picture. After the picture the Giant Goliath turned itself upright and swam off into the shallows. Ed was so proud of that fish, he could have never have eaten it. He was just psyched about getting the chance to go toe to toe with a great fish and be victorious. Ed is the angler who received that chance to answer all of the questions that we have all had about, "What it would be like?" and "Could I do it."

     On a side note, Ed called the day he and his family arrived back home in Maryland. He let me know how sore his body was. He didn't realize all of the bruises, scrapes, and scratches he incurred during his battle with a behemoth Goliath Grouper. He and his family said that day will be etched into their memories forever.

     To conclude, anytime a client/friend catches a truly Giant trophy fish, there really is nothing better than that in my field. To be able to put a smile as big as the moon on a face it simply unbeatable. Congratulations one more time Ed Fitzwilliams. Be sure to check out my last showing of "Addictive Fishing" at 10pm Friday the 27th on OLN. Till next time keep those drags screaming.          

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