Largest Known Officially Recorded Florida Sawfish


Photo and information courtesy, W. Bloyd
On March 15, 1961 a Kentuckian named William Bloyd and his wife headed out in their 14 foot long skiff in search of big sharks in Snake Bight, Florida Bay.  Using a large Penn reel and a heavy duty Hurricane rod equipped with strong 120 pound test line, they baited their hook with a live jack and hoped for something to take the bait.  That day they hooked into the unexpected: a gigantic sawfish!  The fish fought for an hour and even managed to slam six holes into the hull of their fiberglass boat using its powerful saw.  Then Mr. Bloyd was able to throw a rope around its saw and thus secured, they motored into Flamingo to weigh and measure their catch.  Since the sawfish exceeded the capacity of the Flamingo scale, the fish was trucked to Miami.  The official scales of the Metropolitan Miami Fishing Tournament were used to weigh the sawfish.  Its weight and measurement were recorded at 648 pounds (293.5 kg) and 15 feet 4 inches (4.6 m) in total length.  This specimen is a female smalltooth sawfish as pictured on the left.

So what does the International Game Fish Association (IGFA) consider the all-tackle world record sawfish?  According to IGFA old records administrator Doug Bladgett, it weighed in at 890.5 pounds (403.3 kg).  It was recorded only as a sawfish (the species was unspecified) and was caught on May 26, 1960 at Fort Amador, Canal Zone (Panama).  Considering the location of capture and the remarkably heavy weight of the fish, it was probably not a smalltooth sawfish, but a largetooth sawfish (Pristis perotteti).

More about Large Sawfish
Prior to the Pamana catch that resulted in a IGFA record sawfish, the previous record was a 736 pound (333.4 kg) fish that measured 14 feet 7 inches (4.5 m) in total length.  This fish, recorded as a smalltooth sawfish, was caught off Galvaston, Texas by Gus Pangarakis on September 4, 1938.
Source: North American Game Fishes (reprint), F. La Monte, 1958.

According to one book, there is a large sawfish listed as a conventional tackle record for the State of Florida.  It was listed simply as a sawfish (the species was unspecified).  This specimen weighed 545 pounds (246.9 kg), and was caught off Naples in April, 1958.  The anglers name was not given.
Source: Southeast Guide to Saltwater Fishing & Boating (second edition), V. T. Sparano (ed.), 1996.

Yet another book states that the "largest on record" smalltooth sawfish measured 31 feet (9.5 m) in length, and weighed 5,700 pounds (2.85 tons or 2581.1 kg).  This monsterously huge sawfish was supposedly caught by F. A. Mitchell Hedges at Panama Bay, in 1923.  We were able to track down this report to the book Battles with Giant Fish (Mitchell Hedges, 1925; see Sources webpage) where we found further information and photo documentation of this sawfish landing.  However, since the methods of measuring and weighing the sawfish was not mentioned in the text, the authors believe that its stated length and weight should best be viewed only as estimates.
Source: A Dictionary of Fishes (eleventh edition), R. Allyn, 1967.

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