ApneaSpearo
06-23-2008, 11:50 AM
You could feel the anticipation in the air when our little group of spearos met up in the pre-dawn hours, even the esteemed Speedy and Sergio were taking part in the trip to the reefs, a sure sign that coolers would be full. Davie, Hector, Frank and I rounded out the crew of 6 with Speedy's son, Shane, coming along to help us out.
We launched at 7 and were greeted with 1mph winds and top-to-bottom vis. We went to work right away on some finger channels in about 40' getting some nice muttons, hogs, and my only black. We then motored over to a sloping reef going from 40-90' and kept adding fish to the cooler as we drifted the nice bottom. No one was having trouble getting fish in the target-rich environment and Speedy secured a black of his own.
After not seeing much on the deeper side of the reef I kick over to the shallower side and drift along the sand/reef edge. I shot a nice male hog and big mangrove and was looking for some yellow jacks to make into sashimi. I saw a big yellow jack heading straight for me but he was moving too quick and managed to escape. As I was cursing my slow response to the yellow jack I spot two large fish heading down the reef a little to my left. I quickly exhaled and inhaled fully before making as silent of a dive as possible and kicked toward the bottom to intercept. I now recognized the fish as two large African Pompano and kept kicking to get as close as possible. These beasts are known to be excellent fighters so I knew I had to get a good shot on one. Although the one in front was definitely bigger than the one in back my speartip was within 4 feet of the smaller one so I let the shaft fly. Although getting close enough to the fish for a shot wasn't too hard the ensuing fight would prove to be the much more challenging aspect of landing the AP. Before the shaft even went through the fish they were already hauling ass down the reef for deeper water. I put as much pressure on the reel line as possible while kicking my way back to the surface. Once on the surface the fish kept taking line and so I held on tight and was being pulled by the fish along the water at a fast pace. I held on and finally the fish slowed down, I even managed to make some progress and bring the fish in closer. Each time I would bring the fish to within 40 feet of me, however, he would take off again and the battle would commence once more. I knew that the shot was good and that the spear would hold so I continued to tire the fish and after about 20 minutes and a second shaft through the brain we finally managed to boat the large fish. We snapped a few pictures and weighed the fish on Frank's scale and it came out to 44 lbs which made it bigger than the current world record of 43.6 lbs! BTW, we were about 5 miles from land, so the taking of this fish was legal. We put him on ice and headed to a new spot to continue fishing.
We ended up on another sloping reef where Hector narrowly missed two nice blacks that were spending time with a large Jewfish. Everyone is spearing more fish and Davie and I kicked over to the deeper part of the slope to look for more blacks and big muttons. The bottom was a perfect environment for blacks and I get to watch Davie make a dive to 65' and stone a nice 30" black, congrats buddy!
We headed in after that spot with two 164qt coolers bulging and 6 tired spearos. I had a great time guys, hope you did too. Maybe others will chime in with some good stories from their fish, I know there were plenty that day :smthumbup:
When I got back to my house I weighed the AP again on a really accurate scale that had been calibrated and it weighed in at 41 lbs, so it wasn't quite big enough for the WR. He was on ice for a few hours but I doubt that he could have lost over 2.6 lbs in that time. Oh well, it was still a great fish to land :cool: If only I had gotten to the bigger one in front....
Speedy's black:
http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa55/surfunc/a2-10.jpg
Shane holding Speedy's black:
http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa55/surfunc/a22.jpg
My 25" black:
http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa55/surfunc/a1-12.jpg
The 41lb AP:
http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa55/surfunc/a3-7.jpg
The AP in the water, he was thick:
http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa55/surfunc/a32.jpg
Davie with his 30" black:
http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa55/surfunc/a4-4.jpg
The crew and fish:
http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa55/surfunc/a5-2.jpg
We launched at 7 and were greeted with 1mph winds and top-to-bottom vis. We went to work right away on some finger channels in about 40' getting some nice muttons, hogs, and my only black. We then motored over to a sloping reef going from 40-90' and kept adding fish to the cooler as we drifted the nice bottom. No one was having trouble getting fish in the target-rich environment and Speedy secured a black of his own.
After not seeing much on the deeper side of the reef I kick over to the shallower side and drift along the sand/reef edge. I shot a nice male hog and big mangrove and was looking for some yellow jacks to make into sashimi. I saw a big yellow jack heading straight for me but he was moving too quick and managed to escape. As I was cursing my slow response to the yellow jack I spot two large fish heading down the reef a little to my left. I quickly exhaled and inhaled fully before making as silent of a dive as possible and kicked toward the bottom to intercept. I now recognized the fish as two large African Pompano and kept kicking to get as close as possible. These beasts are known to be excellent fighters so I knew I had to get a good shot on one. Although the one in front was definitely bigger than the one in back my speartip was within 4 feet of the smaller one so I let the shaft fly. Although getting close enough to the fish for a shot wasn't too hard the ensuing fight would prove to be the much more challenging aspect of landing the AP. Before the shaft even went through the fish they were already hauling ass down the reef for deeper water. I put as much pressure on the reel line as possible while kicking my way back to the surface. Once on the surface the fish kept taking line and so I held on tight and was being pulled by the fish along the water at a fast pace. I held on and finally the fish slowed down, I even managed to make some progress and bring the fish in closer. Each time I would bring the fish to within 40 feet of me, however, he would take off again and the battle would commence once more. I knew that the shot was good and that the spear would hold so I continued to tire the fish and after about 20 minutes and a second shaft through the brain we finally managed to boat the large fish. We snapped a few pictures and weighed the fish on Frank's scale and it came out to 44 lbs which made it bigger than the current world record of 43.6 lbs! BTW, we were about 5 miles from land, so the taking of this fish was legal. We put him on ice and headed to a new spot to continue fishing.
We ended up on another sloping reef where Hector narrowly missed two nice blacks that were spending time with a large Jewfish. Everyone is spearing more fish and Davie and I kicked over to the deeper part of the slope to look for more blacks and big muttons. The bottom was a perfect environment for blacks and I get to watch Davie make a dive to 65' and stone a nice 30" black, congrats buddy!
We headed in after that spot with two 164qt coolers bulging and 6 tired spearos. I had a great time guys, hope you did too. Maybe others will chime in with some good stories from their fish, I know there were plenty that day :smthumbup:
When I got back to my house I weighed the AP again on a really accurate scale that had been calibrated and it weighed in at 41 lbs, so it wasn't quite big enough for the WR. He was on ice for a few hours but I doubt that he could have lost over 2.6 lbs in that time. Oh well, it was still a great fish to land :cool: If only I had gotten to the bigger one in front....
Speedy's black:
http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa55/surfunc/a2-10.jpg
Shane holding Speedy's black:
http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa55/surfunc/a22.jpg
My 25" black:
http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa55/surfunc/a1-12.jpg
The 41lb AP:
http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa55/surfunc/a3-7.jpg
The AP in the water, he was thick:
http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa55/surfunc/a32.jpg
Davie with his 30" black:
http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa55/surfunc/a4-4.jpg
The crew and fish:
http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa55/surfunc/a5-2.jpg