Clearwater 11/20

[Mutt]

Should make for Plenty of Tasty Holiday Fish Spread

[biggsy]

Wow...how much did he go for? Nice AJ!

[Mutt]

I am not sure, Don't have a scale. But it was over 5 1/2 feet long. The girth of the Jaw and head was pretty Big. This fish was definitely impressive!

After getting it to the boat, and seeing its true length and size, I realized that the Sharks that I have been seeing lately, have actually been miscued lengthwise, and are much bigger than I had thought when aggressing them. It made me realize that I have been pushing away some 6- 8 footers lately. Bigger than I thought.

[TheMackDaddy]

awesome fish...its great to see freedivers post some trophy fish. did he fight u much? were u using a reel or breakaway rig?

[Rolo]

Fantastic...Enjoy the spread. An AJ that large over here on the East Coast will surely be loaded with worms. Good Job!!!

[Mutt]

No worms!

Okay, the story! I am still on my boat suiting up. My buddy is already suited up by the time we anchor. The hazards of being the capain. Always last in the water.

I am still getting ready, and he yells, I need a second shot on an AJ. I am thinking, okay, whatever, I jump in to go help.... I figure about a 30 - 40 pound body shot, thinking why dd he shoot an AJ w/out a kill shot, and wondering why he shot..etc, etc. Soon as i get in, I look up and the AJ has pulled him a quarter mile away from the boat. I am thinking, come on, u should have made a better shot than that.... Current is ripping, etc. . I get there and I see the AJ down on top of the the rocks. My buddy claims he shot a monster.

I get there and rib him about.."now..what are we going to do w/ an AJ." thinking that we are only out here to take select fish, pretty much only a few nice Gags, maybe 1 or 2 big spanish, maybe a King or 2, and maybe a big Hog or 2 if we see them, or couple big Mangos...thinking about all the meat we both have in the freezer. Anyway, I am kind of winded now, so I take a few breaths, swim down a couple times to survey the situation and fish..I come back up and say:

" Now I know why u shot him, he is a Trophy! for this spot, or any SPOT FOR THAT MATTER.

We are laughing, because for the first time he chose to put a reel on and leave his float line and buoy on the boat, being from California, he has been learning to hunt these waters here on my boat for the previous few weeks (trips) out here w/ me. He picked up fast..so he switched to a reel. Before he jumped in I just asked him to please be ultra careful as neither of us are using a float now.

Monster fish, we are both thinking it would have been nice to have that rig he used last week. I have been using a reel myself, but the first time I dive w/ someone, few weeks prior in this case, I like everyone to use a float, etc, etc. Anyway, I ditched mine as well.

okay, here I am, now trying to strategize, how when I place this second shot, how to avoid this monster fish, not bending my shaft in the rocks if I don't brain him and he gets wrapped in the rocks. I go down carefully , he continues to run from me. I finally get what I think is a Kill shot...almost...not stoned, he is a monster, I grab him by the tail and we both manhandle and swim back against a ripping current. All this takes 45 minutes! I still didn't realize how big it was until it took both of us to sling it up on the boat, obviously a lot of the fish a nice bit of Tail hanging out of the ice chest. Great site to see!

[Chad Carney]

Great fish Bruce!

Chad

[Spearo_Fla]

Great story! Beatcha wish you had a float line attached to your belt so you could clip it to the back of the gun and lock down the reel!

[TheMackDaddy]

i've heard of ppl doing this,,,but i have a fear of letting a fish drag my gun around and me not holding onto it. especially if i'm in blue water (or very deep) and i won't be able to retrieve my gun if it falls to the bottom. I need to figure out how to rig a breakaway for my OMER

[Mutt]

well, the only reason u wouldn't want to use the reel is if u didn't have to go in and out of caves and in and out of structure... than I would be happy to have a float line for pelagics, or big grouper. But, generally, over here where I dive, it is rare that I there is not a lot of structure that seems to encumber my float line. I suppose that normally I think that, if I do shoot a big (non-stoned) Grouper.... if I were to be so lucky.... that he will hole up somewhere fairly close. But, I suppose if u make a decent shot, and set the drag properly, just like a fishing reel, hopefully, u can tire a monster out and avoid getting spooled, etc. And in shallow water over here the fish, I suppose is generally going to head to structure some where before one might get spooled. But, personally, I would think serious before taking on a 100 plus pounder, if I couldn't get a good opportunity for a stone shot.

But, there are much more experienced divers on this board that can speak directly to your comments much more accurately than myself.