Get Your Grouper Through Security Check

Know the rules before bringing fish fillets back to the U.S.

Throughout the tropics, wahoo are patrolling waters and terrorizing baitfish, and prize grouper and snapper have moved to shallower waters. Here in the States, December finds many readers with a little hard-earned vacation time and a window of opportunity to travel to some of those prime fishing waters. After such a long-range trip and a little charter fishing, you might like to bring some fillets home to share, along with stories of the adventure, over dinner with friends and family.

I have long ago quit trying to calculate how much those fish fillets I bring back cost per pound. In fact, I don’t even want to think about it. But on those trips you and I do have to think about the ever-changing rules and regulations that pertain to that “special” baggage. There are three entities whose rules you must comply with for transporting fresh fish fillets. Any one of them can seize all or a portion of your catch, which is no way to end a good trip.

First, you must abide by the possession limits of the country you are visiting. Don’t forget that there are daily limits for varying species, sometimes per person and sometimes per boat, as well as trip limits. And be sure you know when your fish, be they whole or gutted, can be filleted and made ready for shipment. Having fillets aboard a boat that were caught on multiple days often exceed a single day’s limit and can be problematic if you are challenged as to what species they are and when they were caught.

Secondly, you need to check with the airline you will be flying and advise them you will be transporting fillets. Each airline is potentially different from other airlines in how they handle perishables and how they must be packaged. Each airline is at liberty to change their own rules pertaining to checked baggage and they frequently do so as economic conditions and the number of seasonal travelers change. If you have been doing much traveling this past year, you have seen numerous changes that limit the number and weight of bags an air carrier will transport.

Airline websites often explicitly state their rules for transporting refrigerated items. Print out these rules, follow them, and carry them with you to present to ticket agents who may not know their own company’s policies. In addition, additional fees are commonplace for oversized, overweight or bags requiring special handling. Using dry ice for packaging? TSA regulations permit a maximum of 5 pounds of dry ice in checked baggage but only 4.4 pounds maximum for carry-on baggage. If carried on board, the dry ice must be in a hard plastic or heavy gauge styrofoam container that is vented. Whether carried on board or checked, the ticket or gate agent must be advised of the dry ice. Individual airlines may also impose additional requirements when shipping dry ice. Some airlines assess an additional fee when dry ice is shipped. Some airlines do not permit the fish fillets to be chilled by ice cubes but do permit the fillets to be frozen in a block of ice. Standing in line at the airport to check your frozen fillets is not time to find out that you can only take a portion of them with you. Separating the frozen mass and disposing of the remainder suddenly becomes a real problem. Not as bad, however, as the lost or delayed cooler with fish fillets when the airline has not been advised of the bag’s contents.

Lastly, you need to check with U.S. Customs regarding the importation of food products from another country. On the customs form you will be given aboard the aircraft, you have to declare that you are importing an animal food product, fish fillets, in your baggage. Fish, however, is on the “General List of Approved Products” that can be imported but the total value of the fish fillets is subject to the $800 duty-free exemption.

A country’s rules and regulations pertaining to the exportation and importation of fish fillets do not change very often but you do need to become familiar with them for each country you will be visiting. The airlines, however, are a different story. Check with them when you purchase your ticket, check again as you depart on your trip, and check again as you prepare to return. Bringing back a few fillets from your tropical travels allows you to savor the trip long after the fishing gear has been stowed.

Jigging up a 105.8-pound black grouper

Only a few pounds shy of the world record

Our Venezuelan correspondents Enrique and Dario Brillembourg report that their recent explorations with the butterfly jigging technique in deep water have yielded excellent catches of grouper, snapper and mackerel, but none so spectacular as Enrique’s 105.8-pound black grouper, caught in September.

At first, Enrique reports, he had long days of jigging with some achievement, but very few big fish. “It seemed that our ocean had been depleted by the uncontrollable, lawless commercial fishing, as is still the case today. Still,” he said, “I'd always return home with more jigging fever.”

His luck changed when he went to a small village that used to live off fishing, but not anymore. On the first day in the afternoon, after catching king mackerel, mutton snappers and almaco jacks, he had a warning: After hooking an almaco, something grabbed it and took it to the bottom like a rocket, then let it go.

“When we looked at the almaco at the boat, we saw it was skinned, with toothmarks on all its body. We knew something big gulped it in.”

Next day, in another nearby spot, the sounder began to mark what seemed to be albacore at mid water. “I got my jig down to bottom about 220 feet and started the retrieve,” Enrique said. “At midwater something stopped my lure, and I couldn’t move its head up. Then, as if my effort was nothing, the fish turned down so violently and my reel started to sound very bad and lost the anti-reverse lock. A big cubera, I thought when it got to the bottom, or a big goliath, but miraculously it did not get into its lair.

“With big problems with my reel, I put the rod on the boat's rail and started to balance the animal upwards with all my force, the fish shaking his head, coming up slowly. Now and then it surged to the bottom and started the game over. After what seemed to be hours, I had the fish to mid-water when it dove again, strong as his first run, but that would be its last.

“It floated on the surface, and I couldn´t believe my eyes. I will never forget its silhouette with yellows and browns enlightening in the deep blue. Then I realized it was not a goliath but the biggest black grouper I've ever seen, even in photos. I thought to release it, but was unable to puncture its vent in the correct manner. The fish went to scale, and weighed 105.8 pounds (on a not-certified scale). A few pounds less than the IGFA world record of the species. Now I’m sad for this magnificent grouper I could not release alive, but I have learned how to vent it right and next one will live for another adventure from the deep.”

Enrique Brillemborg boats a once-in-a-lifetime black grouper caught off his home waters of Venezuela.

On the catch, Enrique used a Smith WGJ 50 H (“What a rod!”), Shimano Torium 30 reel (“Great reel, but not designed for a monster like this. It is in repair.”) with Zenaq PE5 line (“Incredibly strong and thin”) and a Kakareko (a Brazilian make) jig, weighing 200 grams.