Wandering around the Gulf Coast, in several seafood restaurants, Beauvoir, on the wall at the Bass Pro Shop in Pearl, and other places, you will see a reproduction of a 1906 photograph of Captain John T MacDonald, taken in Pass Christian. It shows MacDonald, a renowned local angler, standing proudly next to a fish, pole in hand. The fish is a giant, taller than the fisherman by at least two feet and more than twice as big around. The monster creature is 440 lbs, measures 8 feet, 1.5 inches long and has a five-foot 10-inch girth. It is a Black Sea Bass, and there are still some out there in the Gulf with your name on it. Just slightly smaller...
About the Black Sea Bass
Known by its scientific name Centropristis striata, the black sea bass is a type of Grouper (Serranidae) found in inshore coastal waters (bays and sounds) and offshore in waters out to 400 feet deep. They spawn in the first part of the year (Jan-April) and during this time, they move closer inland. As a juvenile fish, they are a dusky brown with a lighter belly, with this brown turning to black once they mature. They greatly resemble a large freshwater bass (to which they are unrelated), and their dorsal fin has white spots and bands. These sea bass are delicious, having a pure white meat.
Current Black sea bass, also called Rock Bass, are reported to grow to a maximum of 24-25 inches in length and live 15-20 years. Typical size for an adult fish is 5-10 pounds. The current MDMR recognized all tackle record is a 14-ounce fish (they aren't registered often, and are occasionally mistaken for striped bass that are more common). There is currently not a state fly record for this species. The IGFA All-Tackle World Record Black Sea Bass is 10 lbs 4 oz. specimen caught off Virginia in 2000. This brings us back to 1906 and the Goliath...
... MacDonald Fish
Perhaps the most famous of these fish ever captured in Mississippi waters was that remarkable outsized beast of MacDonald's. The famous photograph, taken in 1906 Pass Christian, shows Mississippi Captain John T. MacDonald standing alongside the Black Sea bass he caught in the Gulf of Mexico, with a rod and reel. It was caught at Tarpon Hole, a spot still known today by locals as prime offshore fishing territory. MacDonald's story made it into a Ripley's Believe It Or Not article and circled the globe, appearing in newspapers from Singapore to Seattle. While Capt. McDonald's fish seems more like a Giant Black Sea Bass (which do not live in the Gulf) or possibly a mixed up grouper (which is more plausible), his record was nonetheless impressive.
Captain McDonald operated the 42-foot fishing schooner "Queen of the Fleet," and later went on to become elected mayor of the Pass no less than three times. The original photograph of Capt. John and his fish is now property of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. The Queen of the Fleet was sunk in 1923, raised and later used to train Merchant Marine cadets in WWII and currently resides as the museum ship Governor Stone in Ft Walton Florida.
Fishing for Black sea bass today
While highly regulated in Atlantic and Florida waters, Mississippi DMR is more lenient in the waters of the Magnolia state when it comes to sea bass. Current regs do not mention any limits on sea bass in state waters.
These grouper troopers spend most of their time hovering over the bottom and like to cool their heels around bottom structure such as bridge pilings, construction rap, man-made reefs, wrecks, jetties, and piers. As such, these bad boys love the bottom-feeder's diet of shrimp, crab, and small minnows. A good tip for artificial baits is to use a smaller jig head rigged with 10-20 pound test and troll lightly over the bottom in waters under 40 feet deep. As the Mississippi Sound rarely provides deeper, this works near shore.
These stout mini-groupers are bantamweight fighters that give a good battle, especially on light tackle. While not super common in the Sound, they are out there and promise a fight all out of proportion to their size.
No wonder Capt. MacDonald is not smiling in his famous picture, he is probably tired.
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