This fishing report posted on Hatteras Harbor on July 16th. I'm trying to figure out what that grouper is at the bottom right.
Coloration and shape seem off for a Speckled Hind (which would be illegal).
Broomtail makes it look scampy, but most dead scamps I've seen are gray with dark spots, not brown with lighter gray spots.
Snowies are brown with white spots.
Totally off for the other usual suspects of gag and red.
Doesn't look like the less common ones either (rock hind, coney, graysby).
Assume too shallow for a wreckfish, and wrong shape/color there too.
Shape looks most like a misty, but I don't think we get them up here, and they're striped, not speckled.
Anybody got a good idea what this thing is?
The shape and markings are typical of a Marbled grouper Dermatopelis inermis. Spots on a speckled hind are way more uniform.
By the way we've caught several Mistys in the deep...
thanks. That's exactly what it is. I'd never seen or heard of that fish until now but a quick google shows you're exactly right. Says they're not very common, so explains why I've not heard of it. Nice to add another on to the bucket of knowledge - and appreciate you letting me know the range of the mistys comes up here.
I didn't think it a speckled hind, but that's what the body shape suggested, and the only few of them we've ever caught were about that size, and off Hatteras.