iStockphoto / Jerry Ballard
Connor Cruise, son of actor Tom Cruise, caught a truly massive 301-pound Warsaw Grouper over the weekend to win the grand prize in the Sarasota Slam fishing tournament in Sarasota, Florida. The Sarasota Slam is an annual fishing tournament held at Marina Jack in Sarasota, Florida.
Fun fact about Sarasota’s history. A local man named Jack Graham is credited these days with building Marina Jack’s into what it is today but it was once co-owned by two men named Jack, Jack Graham and Jack Anderson. The former was my grandfather’s good friend and the latter was my grandfather. My family got out of that business long before I was ever born but this fishing tournament is held at the marina once co-owned by my grandfather in Sarasota, Florida.
Tom Cruise’s Son Caught This Massive 301-Pound Warsaw Grouper In Sarasota, Florida
Warsaw Grouper are one of the biggest subspaces of grouper fish in the oceans with the IGFA fishing world record for Warsaws tipping the scales at 436 pounds, 12 ounces. That fish was caught out of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico so far out that they didn’t even list the port of exit/entry on the fishing world record, but that fishing world record dates back to December 1985.
Some videos of the winning 301-pound Warsaw Grouper were shared in the fishing community and by Connor Cruise, son of the legendary actor Tom Cruise. Here’s that massive grouper at the weigh-in at Marina Jack’s:
Biggest fish in the Sarasosta Slam!
This 301-pound Warsaw Grouper was the largest fish caught in the 2022 Sarasota Slam fishing tournament. That meant Connor Cruise and his team took home the grand prize for biggest fish.
For anyone who isn’t familiar with the geography of Florida or where Sarasota is, it’s about an hour south of Tampa, FL and an hour-ish north of Ft. Myers. It’s in an area of Southwest, Florida that is home to some of the best tarpon fishing on the planet. It’s also a snook haven and during certain times of the year it’s a global hotpost for catching Kingfish, Tripletail, American Red Snapper, and various species of grouper.
However, unlike the East Coast of Florida it’s relatively shallow off Sarasota in the Gulf of Mexico. In order to target large species like the Warsaw Grouper or pelagics, fishermen need to travel 50 to 100 or more miles offshore.
On the East Coast of Florida, you can go two miles off Boca Raton and be fishing in water that’s a few hundred feed deep. In Southwest Florida, it takes a long ride out to deeper water to target bigger fish. So they certainly burned a LOT of gas running out to wherever this Warsaw was caught.
Huge Warsaw Grouper caught in Sarasota, Florida AGAIN
This is the second time in two years the Sarasota Slam fishing tournament was won by a team who caught a massive Warsaw Grouper. The 2021 tournament saw a record-setting Warsaw that weighed 400-pounds, just 36 pounds of being a new IGFA World Record fish.
Here’s that 400-pound winning/record-setting fish from last year’s Sarasota Slam:
I’m not including that 400-pounder to diminish the 301-pound Warsaw Grouper caught by Connor Cruise. It’s just to illustrate how truly massive this species of grouper can get!
For more on the 2022 Sarasota Slam fishing tournament, you can check out the touranment’s website or Facebook page.
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