Did you know Al Pinder and his brothers? They were into spear fishing in Miami and SE Florida. Largest one I saw that that got was around 1,000+#. I had a photo of it hanging from a car wrecker boom. Also same photo, was in the Miami Herald,195x.
No, I did not know them. I started fishing in the 1970s in Central Florida. Fished most all of the fisheries in the Southeast and Gulf until the 1990s when I saw the writing on the wall.