The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Marine Fisheries recently certified a new state record for the Graysby Grouper (Cephalopholis cruentata).
Wyatt Rabon of Leland caught the 3-pound, 8-ounce fish on May 16, 2026, off Southport. Rabon’s fish replaced the previous state record Graysby Grouper, landed in 2022, which weighed 3 pounds, 0.8 ounces.
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.
Rabon was fishing about 45 miles offshore of Southport with his father and friends aboard their personal vessel using live Pinfish for bait when he landed the fish on 100-pound test with a Shimano Trevalla rod and Shimano Torso 30 reel.
The group had been targeting grouper and triggerfish. The crew nearly filleted the fish once they got home before realizing they might have a potential record. The fish measured just over 17 inches total length (from the tip of the nose to the stretched end of the tail) and had a girth of 13 inches. The fish was weighed in at the Intracoastal Angler in Wilmington.
Graysby Grouper are a small species of shallow water grouper managed by the South Atlantic Fisheries Management Council. Graysby can be identified from similar grouper species by their rounded caudal (tail) fin, uniform red dots over a tan or beige body color, and nine dorsal spines. 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.
For more information on state record fish, go to the division’s State Saltwater Records webpage or contact the North Carolina Saltwater Fishing Tournament staff at saltwater.citations@deq.nc.gov.
Download a photo of Rabon and his fish.