Warsaw Picture

[diligaf]

Just thought I would share with the board my favorite all-time spearfishing photo. Some of you may have seen or read about this pic in Spearfishing Mag. The photo is of an old dive buddy, who prehaps is the best spearfisherman I have ever know and a 338 lbs. Warsaw grouper taken off of Ft. Lauderdale in nearly 300 FSW.

[Sliptip]

There has got to be an interesting story behind the picture...like, how did he survive the dive...trimix or grande cahones, what kind of gun, when? So, let me grab a beer while you entertain us with a great story...it's got to be good!

[fishhunta]

earp- I knew it was you. I thought it was you when you were talking about s. daye, but now i know it is you. this is paul, i work at force-e and with Brett doin the tropical fish thing on the seacat. good to see a really experienced east coaster on the board......

[diligaf]

Paul - Thanks for the kind words.

The story behind this Warsaw is amazing, landed by an amazing spearfisherman. The story was told in Spearfishing Magazine about a year ago. I'll try to make a long story short.

First, I do not want to encourage anyone to try dives they are not trained for. If you deep dive long enough, accidents will happen, I don't care who you are. Over the years I have had the privilege to dive and learn from some of the best, including Tom Mount, Harley Brown, Andy Bator, and S. Daye. I have also lost friends over the years from drownings, O2 hits, equipment failures, and shark attack and nearly lost another from an embolism. I've also had my share of close calls. So please, get trained and be prepared when accidents happen.

The man with the Warsaw is Harley and the story took place in 1994. At the time, Harley was a friendly competitor. We both dove the deep wrecks off Ft. Lauderdale looking for Warsaws. Each night we would call one another to make sure we did not end up at the same wreck. One night I called Harley to tell him my plans, my dive buddy had never dove this wreck and wanted to do it. Harley said he was diving that wreck the next day and really wanted to do it. So I said, go ahead and dive it first, we'll go in afterward.

What I didn't know was that Harley had dove this wreck that day and had spotted the giant Warsaw, but was not able to land it. He figured that he would try one more time and if unsuccessful, he would tell me it was down there.

Harley is a soft spoken well mannered person. He is also the only person I have ever met in my life that has absolutely no fear.

On this day the seas and current were calm. Harley anchored up and dove down to the wreck on air. He took along 3 JBL XHD's and a 3 foot cable. He speared the grouper with each gun and managed to get the cable through it's gills. He was able to secure the cable to the anchor line.

I pulled up when Harley was just getting back on the boat. He had a big smile on his face and I knew Harley didn't tell me something the night before. But hey, I was happy for him as he pulled up the anchor line and the giant grouper surfaced. Harley and I also had a little personal big fish contest. He smiled and said " I think I got the biggest fish now".

All was not lost for me, I went down and saw 50 pounders all over the place.

The Warsaw was so big that Harley could not get it in the boat. He secured it to the side and brought it to the docks where a forklift had to be used.

Harley had the Warsaw fillet and donated to feed the homeless.

[Steel Shootin']

Great story and photo. Thanks for putting it on the board. I've got to put that on the front page spearboard news.

[kitefisherman]

As I recall from Sheri's article in Spearfishing magazine, the warsaw broke Harley's shaft near the tip when he speared it on the first day. The warsaw wasn't afraid of anything so Harley then took his broken shaft, stuck it through the warsaw's gills and tried to "string" the big fish to no avail. All of this going down in over 200 feet of water on air on a solo dive. I think that there were two creatures in the water that day that weren't afraid of anything.

[junior]

Cajones!

[f94gator]

One word. WOW

[Tony Sinphay]

Awesome story and awesome fish, Harley sounds like a very nice guy, giving the fillets to the homeless and all.

[ogredive]

Sorry for the ignorance,

I have never seen a warsaw before. I can image that if I did see one ...especially that big, that I would have thought it was a jewfish. I know a jewfish has spots. Can someone educate me on identifying each species. Are they different enough to easily tell apart?

[rigdvr]

see the squared tail? All jewfish fins are very round.

[ogredive]

So ... round tail fin, and spots on a jewfish. No spots on warsaw right? Thanks for the clarification.

[aue-mike]

As mentioned, jewfish have a rouded, paddle-like tail fin, while a warsaw is more typical with a straighter caudal fin. The jewfish is mottled brown, while the warsaws are grey, and sometimes have a very distinct bi-color appearance. Also, the first dorsal spine is very pronounced on a warsaw.

BTW, diligaf, what wreck was that speared on if I may ask? RBJ?

[rigdvr]

Definately different looking fish altogether but I have had to make quick decisions on them in murky waters before and my rule of thumb on large groupers is if the fins are round, dont shoot. All the fins are round and paddle like on a jew but most other groupers(all I know of) have fins much more square.

[aue-mike]

Also, the two species are not typically found in abundance in the same habitat. Jewfish are a shallow water species, with most adult staying shallower than 200 feet; I have seen a specimen or two as deep as 260fsw, but that is typically not the norm.
In contrast, warsaws are found in deeper water, as evident by the specimen in this post. Warsaws can occasionally be found in shallower water, as numerous specimens were caught this year in 120fsw off the central east coast of Florida due to the cold water. The big boys are found in 250 - 450+fsw...

[diligaf]

Hi aue-mike,

The warsaw was taken off a lesser known wreck in 295 FSW(not the RBJ), since I still like to dive the wreck every now and then I'll refrain from mentioning the name.

That was also great info you posted on Warsaws. I would like to point out that warsaws do have a somewhat rounded tail when you see them in the water. They are mostly gray in the water and sometimes have white or black pok-a-dots. They are much larger and far fewer than the dots on jew fish. Like you said, the dorsal fin is the best way to tell. The first spike is short, the second very long.

[ogredive]

Good observations! Thanks for the info. The depth range is probably why I have never seen one. Hell of a catch though! Great job!

[aue-mike]

I forgot to mention, if you want to see some toads like the one in this thread, there are some video clips on the AUE website that capture some big Warsaws.
http://www.mikey.net/aue/theater.htm
The Hatteras video has a clip towards the end where there were 3-4 whales on the USS VIRGINIA. You see them right as we reach the wreck, and then as we are scootering to the bow you can see one up off the wreck. The top of the wreck was about 350fsw, with the sand around 415fsw.
The PAN MASS video also has a clip of a large Warsaw, this one with the more interesting bi-color pattern (related to spawning?). This was in the sand around 285fsw.
You can see that the caudal is a bit flatter than a jewfish when sitting idle, but when it is swimming it rounds out a bit.

[RabiSpear]

Aue-mike,
I know this doesn't really relate to this particular post too closely, but that wreck footage is amazing. I freedove those wrecks off Hatteras in the OMER Open, so it was sweet to see them up close. I have tried to describe all of the fish we saw and the abundance of sharks to so many people. Anyone who reads this has to check out his site. We saw plenty of big grouper and the Pargo (big snapper) were way off the wreck at times. Great footage.

[aue-mike]

Yeah, I did see a lot of scamp, and on one wreck the sow red snapper were over-running the joint. Lots of big sheepshead too.

[IyaDiver]

Hi Mike,

Too bad the Hatteras video is 18.8 MB, that will take me 4-5 hours to download.....damn. I have a grouper which I took video of and can not yet ID.

Anyway since you are into wrecks, do you know that close by my city in Jakarta, Java Island that is, there is USS Houston CA-31 shiwreck and HMAS Perth which sank in the battle of Java in WW 2. Just maybe you are interested to know.

I used to dive a lot there but not anymore. I think a few people have made videos and Houston Survivor Org have placed a flag there. However the viz is real bad 90% of the time. Expect 10-15 feet murky + dark green slime + algea as normal. If you want the GPS cordinate, PM me.

[diligaf]

I was looking back in my old fish pictures, and I think this is the warsaw I shot on the wreck that day. Nice fish, but a mere baby compared to Harley's.