Barred Rubberlip, world record submit story: (As told to Larry Carter)

"As usual the boat went on the water around 6 am… Emiliano, the boat owner, Francisco, our skipper, Dave, an invited guest and me…one hour later we were in the ledge before Danae reef, hopping for some Dog Tuna.

After a few dives, a Dog Tuna, an Emperor and some nice Whitebarred Rubberlips, we decided to go to the reef in search of some Red Snappers.

Arriving at the spot, the visibility was great as the fish could be seen right from the surface some 18 meters below. Emiliano and I went first, Dave stayed on board…after a few dives the Red Snappers weren’t collaborating so I decide to drift a bit far from the chosen spot, from the surface I could see some snappers down below, so I dive to intercept them…reaching the bottom they run away so I hide behind a rock in order to appeal to their curiosity, after one minute on the bottom and the fish reluctant to enter, I slowly swim from behind the rock, and a bit to my left I can see a huge Barred Rubberlip getting inside a small cave. I stop, turn slowly, and position myself on the side of the cave in order for the fish not to see me completely…I wait, already in my last seconds before I need to hit the surface…gun aimed at the entrance, finger on the trigger…slowly the Rubberlip comes out to take a look and as sonn as it shows its full head I shoot and hit him straight behind the eye, a kill shot…I leave the gun down and head for the surface…I call for the boat and make another dive to retrieve the fish and the gun…

On the boat we got curious about a world record for we had never shot a Rubberlip that big…

Later on the dock at Clube Naval they tell me the scale as well as the weight master where not available that Sunday so we took the fish to a fishmongers shop to see how much did it weight. It did 4,790 kg on that scale so I decided to keep it frozen in order to know what was the record.

At night, back home I could see there was no record and being so, I decided to apply for it. Three days later I unfroze the fish and took it to Clube Naval to be weighted in their certified scale, by the clube’s weight master. Gathered two random witnesses, present in the local at the time and proceeded with the weighting and measuring.

It tipped 7,4kg, 68,5 cm of length and 59,5 cm of girth."

Obrigado ao "Jeito", o nosso skipper, ao Dave Charley pela companhia e boa disposiçao, ao meu irmão de mar, Emiliano Finocchi pelo apoio e ajuda e ao Jorge na qualidade de representante do Clube Naval de Maputo por se ter disponibilizado para a pesagem!!!

PS: ...e á minha esposa por me aturar!!!