Curious NC angler decides to wait on cleaning fish and discovers it set a record

An angler’s last minute decision not to clean and fillet one of his fish led to a discovery that it set a state record and tied the international record, according to North Carolina Marine Fisheries.

Wyatt Rabon of Leland caught the orange spotted grouper on May 16, about 45 miles off Southport, state officials said.

“We were cleaning fish and Jason Jones, who was fishing with us, said: ‘I think that is a Graysby grouper.’ I looked it up,” Rabon told The Charlotte Observer.

“I kept picking it up and weighing by hand debating whether to clean it or not. We agreed to weigh it, and thankfully it made the record.”

The 17-inch fish weighed in at 3 pounds, 8-ounces, which is about 7 ounces larger than the previous record set in 2022, state officials said in a May 28 news release.

“Rabon’s fish also unofficially ties the currently certified International Game Fish Association All Tackle World Record Graysby grouper, caught in 2023 off Georgetown, S.C.,” state officials said.

Rabon and his dad were out fishing with friends when he caught the grouper with a Shimano Trevalla rod and Shimano Torso 30 reel, the state said. He was using live Pinfish for bait.

They weighed it at the Intracoastal Angler in Wilmington, which is about a 130-mile drive southeast from downtown Raleigh.

The Graysby grouper is a shallow water species managed by the South Atlantic Fisheries Management Council.

“Graysby, like many grouper species, start life as female, and after their first spawning season, transition to male around 4 years of age or 9-to-10 inches,” N.C. Marine Fisheries officials said.

This story was originally published June 1, 2026 at 6:22 AM with the headline "Curious NC angler decides to wait on cleaning fish and discovers it set a record."