Hi

I was telling a (true) story the other day about this MONSTER of a
fish we caught
in The Gulf of Mexico from an oil rig. And the problem is I cant
remember what
species of fish it was - can any of you guys help?


Well, for the hell of it, here's the story:

It was back in the summer of 1980, and during my university vacation I
managed to blag a job as a "roustabout" on an oil rig. It was one of
the largest production platforms in The Gulf and about 100 miles off
the coast of Louisiana.

Anyhow, towards the end of my first week, I discovered that the
foreman was new on the rig too. Well, we used to work a 12 hour shift
- 6AM to 6PM and after work, some of the lads used to fish. This was
something of an operation from 90 ft up... and not really approved of
by the powers that be... - but still possible provided nothing much
else was going on (and a bit of a blind eye was turned).

Well this particular evening, someone had hooked something big. But
the line had snapped. So they put a heavier line on and... darn it! it
snapped again. So finally a couple of the lads had put together the
strongest line they could find - sorry I cant remember the exact
details - I'm no fisherman - but heavy duty nylon cord as thick as
your finger - and... "G*d D*mn!" the darned thing only snapped again.

Well in despair someone happened to mention this to the foreman. Well,
being keen to get in with the lads the foreman said: "Listen boys, we
all KNOW I shouldn't be doing this... but as a special treat... just
this once... Let's see if we can't catch that M-F. Let's see what we
can do with the 100 tonne crane."

So he got the welding man to "practice his metal cutting skills" on
something that just so happened to look like a hook cut out from half-
inch steel plate... and if memory serves me correctly he got a couple
of massive steaks that cook "was going to throw out anyways"... They
then got a serious nylon rope about as thick as your wrist, and a
heavy duty chain and tied them all together, complete with the
monstrous hook on the end, whacked the massive steaks on the end,
hooked it up to the 100 tonne crane and proceeded to lower it into the
water.

Well this was a configuration that could lift a house! And to be fair
the foreman was mainly just showing off - no one thought for a minute
that we would catch anything on such a rediculously large hook.

But oil rigs are strange places underwater. They have their own entire
ecosystem of things growing off them and bigger and bigger things
eating each other. Furthermore, in order to keep the oil men happy
they used to absolutely STUFF us with food. Anything you want. As MUCH
as you want. And the rest would be thrown over board... in huge
bulk...
....for the fish!

Well that particular evening there was clearly one of the true
monsters down there in angry, snapping mood. And the damned thing only
went and bit the hook!

Cut a long story short we suddenly had a problem. This fish pretty
much WAS the size of a house!

The foreman was rather petrified that the chairman of Penzoil would
happen to be flying past - imagine it - and looking down he'd see that
one of his rigs was busy landing not oil but a MASSIVE fish, dangling
off its 100 tonne crane!

So we posted 3 guys as lookouts for helicopters and set about landing
it.

But how? Well, there was only one place - the heliport. But although
they have safety netting it's actually quite dangerous because they
are absolutely flat - no hand rails or anything - and 2 or 3 hundred
feet above water level.

Listen, these oil-men all seemed to be ex American football players -
but this thing was way, way bigger then any of them. The thing was
ABSOLUTELY MASSIVE and one flick of its tail and... someone could die.

Anyhow the foreman choose the two biggest, fattest, meanest men on the
rig and they armed themselves with two-foot "monkey wrenches", and
then proceeded to raise this thing and land it on the heliport. And
the two guys went in a WHACKED it.

The sad thing is I can't remember much about the fish itself. To me it
just looked like a perfectly normal, 'fish'! It wasn't flat. It wasn't
a shark or a dolphin. It had no spike on it's nose or anything. I
remember it being rather sort of fat and round, but apart from that is
was just a regular, boring looking 'fish', with everything pretty much
in proportion... but HUGE. The eyes for example were about the size of
a fried egg.

The name of the fish species too was something very pedestrian
sounding...

Unfortunately I cant quite remember the exact weight either, but all I
can tell you was that it was well over 1000 lbs.

But can anyone help me with what species it might have been?
A "cat-fish" or a "grouper" ??


Ship
Shiperton Henethe

P.S. It must have been an edible species too because Cook cooked us
all up a fat chunk each to take home with us, thereby breaking yet
another rule - "no food to be taken off the rig". But well, I guess it
seemed rude not to give us a wee momento after all that excitement!

PPS. Btw if you dont believe me save your breath, because I really
dont care. The fact is that believe it or not all of this DID happen.