AFRICAN SPEARFISHING DIARIES - VOLUME 3

AFRICAN SPEARFISHING DIARIES - VOLUME 3
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Este lo dedico a tu hija, Daniela, enorabuena Benjamin!!! Marbled Coralgrouper, world record submit story (As told to Larry Carter)



"It was a bit late when the boat was finally down the ramp, the North wind was picking up announcing a choppy ride...

With the high tide already lost, the option was to head to the Dog Tuna hunting grounds, a drop off in the inside ledge of Danae shoal that produces excellent Doggies, nice Spanish Mackerel and some very good groupers…

One hour and a half later we arrive at the spot…the viz was excellent for that particular area and we could see the bottom right after the drop, some 19 meters below…

The first drifts didn’t produce any fish even on the massive Fusilier bait ball, and we soon realized that the pelagics where not there…
It was time for another strategy, changing the 160 spearguns with the floatlines and floats to the 130’s with reel…it was bottom hunting time!

The tide was slowing down making it perfect to look for those groupers inside the caves in the drop some 24 meters below…Emiliano was the first to score, landing a nice Red Snapper after quite a long wait…

…in the second drift I manage to shoot a lovely Malabar grouper getting her with a straight shot in the head as she was moving from one cave to the other…

A few more drifts and we moved a little to the south side of the drop…up on the surface while moving in the current I could see a shape above the coral, near a large cave entrance…four more deep breaths, I take the snorkel of my mouth to eliminate the noise and dive down…my fins stop around -14…the shape was now a tremendous Marbled Coral Grouper moving slowly to the cave…I let myself glide making absolutely no movement, gun alongside the body in order not to scare her…she stops just before the entrance…I bring the gun to the front positioning very gently hoping she doesn’t run…these moments last a lifetime, between the second I aim, and the one I pull the trigger…whoosh…straight behind the head!!! The fish twists a bit but doesn’t even move inside…the shot was perfect…-22 meters below I look up grabbing my prized catch and I can see Emiliano giving me the thumbs up in the surface…

In the boat I couldn’t believe it… just last week I had the record approved for this specie and this one was almost the double in size!!!

We took some pictures right after the catch and at the end of the day we took it to be weighted at Sabor A Mar Fishmongers…the smaller scale could only weight 15 Kg, so it was weighted in the digital platform one…my wife, Mr. Nelson and Mr. Ivan served as witnesses, we took the measurements and in the end I just sited there looking at this marvelous fish with a big smile on my face…"

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