Beautiful Fish: Wreck Fish

Wreck Fish, Wreck Bass

Reaches a length of 4½ to 5 feet at least, and a weight of more than 100 pounds. Small wreck fish are most likely to be found under floating logs or wreckage, as the common name implies. When larger, they take to bottom.

Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine—  The only report that has reached us of a wreck fish in any part of the Gulf of Maine is of one 24½ inches long, weighing 9 pounds 7 ounces (dressed), taken on the northern edge of Georges Bank, August 13, 1951, by the trawler Winthrop.  Another, 6 inches long, was caught on the surface off No Man’s Land Island, near Martha’s Vineyard, August 21, 1925; and two have been brought in from the Grand Banks, one of them many years ago, the second in 1929.

From Fishes of the Gulf of Maine by Bigelow and Schroeder (1953) online courtesy of MBL/WHOI http://www.gma.org/fogm/Polyprion_americanus.htm

Al Bezanson