As far as extracurricular activities in Florida go, you can do a whole lot worse than fishing. You can go out on the ocean looking for redfish, snook, trout, or even bigger game fish like wahoo, tarpon, or amberjack. If the sea isn't your thing, the freshwater fisheries in Florida include some of the absolute best bass fishing in the country. It isn't for everyone, but if you are going to throw some lines in the water, Florida is a great place to do it.
Unfortunately, the Red Sox took ... an alternative approach for their spring training outing, and decided to target the fish that most self-respecting anglers avoid in the form of trash species and escaped aquarium fish.
Duran, Wilson, Wong, Chapman, Crawford, Weissert, Devers and Guerrero went out fishing last night. 🎣
— Boston Strong (@BostonStrong_34) March 5, 2025
Via: Florida Premier Fishing pic.twitter.com/3J6hLpLtGL
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Red Sox fishing trip reveals that Kutter Crawford may be the only actual fisherman in the whole group
First, the positive stuff. What the Boston collective have piled in their boat is mostly a bunch of species that are invasive to Florida that need to be culled. The big flat-ish ones appear to be tilapia that were released in Florida to keep the grass in check and now have infested most of the state. The darker fish that looks like an armadillo and a catfish had a baby is a pleco, which are a popular aquarium cleaner fish until people realize they actually get relatively big. Jarren Duran is holding a gar that isn't invasive, but is also not a fish that anglers usually target (nor should they) and one that no one should hold like Duran is unless you like needle-sharp teeth in your body.
I'm also willing to ignore the fact that these guys were very likely fishing with bait of some kind. Personally, I would have a black and blue chatterbait (look it up) and a Texas rig tied on while hunting for a real fish like largemouth bass, but expecting everyone to fish with artificial lures, especially just starting out, isn't fair.
What is fair to criticize, though, is that not only were the Red Sox apparently fishing for the trash fish that people clean tanks and ponds with, but look at how these guys are holding these fish! If you notice Duran with bandaids on his hand in camp, that slimy and probably mean gar he is holding with one hand for no reason is going to be your culprit. Rafael Devers looks like he is being held hostage, and it is a mortal lock he dropped his fish as soon as that flash went off. Based on how Luis Guerrero is holding his fish, he was blocking his face with his arm so everyone didn't know he was screaming "icky fish! icky fish!" in public.
The one saving grace from this motley crew is Kutter Crawford. Notice his form, lipping two fish simultaneously and making sure to hold them out a little bit to make them look bigger in the picture. That is a man that has had a fishing rod in his hand before and, being from Florida himself, Crawford gets the gold star for showing these guys how it is done.
In short, the Red Sox went fishing. It definitely showed that they don't ever fish and their target species were pretty embarrassing, and I want to go fishing with Kutter Crawford.