This large, awesome Mutton Snapper was not caught in a deep cut out in Florida Bay on a dead mullet. It was not caught chumming a wreck near Key West or drifting cut ballyhoo on the reef near Sombrero Light. It was caught on light spin tackle by Capt. Tommy Busciglio sight casting in two feet of water. The fish was following a sting ray on the north end of the Marquesas in the early 1980s. It measured 32″ to the tip of the tail, 29.25″ to the fork with a 24″ girth. It weighed just over 21 pounds. Capt. Tommy took it to the fine taxidermist George Cornish of Summerland Key, who worked his magic turning out this life-like modified skin mount. It was common back then to see Mutton Snappers up on the flats tailing like bonefish or mud-puffing along behind a meandering sting ray or nurse shark, especially on the flats west of Key West. They took flies. If the light was just right, you could see them waving their red-orange tails above the surface like redfish…except the mutton snapper would pull the snot out of any redfish alive. They were fierce fighters on light tackle.
After years of finagling and oceans of Bud Lite, I finally walked away with the mount. It hangs on my wall today. It reminds me of how wonderful it was…to be fishing in the Florida Keys. And how I thought it would never end.
