I participated in the St. Pete open spearfishing tournament for the first time his year. The Open is touted as the largest and longest running spearo tourney in the world. Having over forty years of continuous tourney with over two hudred participants every year pretty much makes that fact. I had no idea what was in store for me as we charged offshore in the darkness aboard Capt. Travis Ormond's Pelagic that saturday morning.
My first dive that day was in 150'. I had never been to 150'.... deepest ever previous was 135'.
I was slightly apprehensive about the depth, but knew that my experience and training would bring me back safely. Well, as I descended, I had a wicked bad sinus squeeze. I pressurized my nose and popped back to normal, as my one of my bands broke on my sea hornet. I was about seventy feet down by this point and could see the bottom, the ledge, and some fish milling about.
I hovered at 130 feet and looked for a likely target. I saw Scamps, Gags, Mangroves, Baby Amberjacks, four of the hugest hogfish I had ever laid eyes on, and right before me, a beautiful sixty pound true black grouper!
I closed the gap to the fish and took a nice easy shot right in the high back portion of the gill plate. My shaft connected and the fish shuddered and bolted under the ledge, disappearing into a deep cave. I reloaded with my spare shaft and probed the recesses of the cavern with out touching anything.
I backed off and ascended to 130' while scanning the area. As I looked off to the left I saw a pretty good sized Jewfish. Suddenly the Jewfish fanned his fins and I watched it morph into a gigantic Carbo!
I stalked closer to the fish and let fly with my steel. It never flinched and was bolting into the same cavern as the first fish. I watched as a mushroom cloud of silt exploded from beneath the craggy limestone ledge. Defeated, and out of spearshafts, I ascended back to the boat while wild images ran through my head.
I sat in the boat for three hours kind of reflecting and planning my next assault. I needed to recover some shafts and try to get one if not both fish out of the cave. I geared up to drop on the same ledge. I was shooting with my Riffe Blue water this dive. Definitely a big fish gun, and I was going to need it.
Making my descent, I could see the bottom and small fish weaving about. I scanned as I closed the distance to the cave. I did not see any fish on the topside, or out in the sand. At that point I knew I had to search inside the cave. I neared the entrance, and I was forty feet away from it when I saw the huge caudal fin of the larger Carbo!
I descended slowly and was still quite a distance from the fish when I took the shot. I connected somewhere behind it's head and it blasted into the cave. I quickly descended and wedged myself against the lip of the crusty limestone. Pulling with all my power, I could feel the big grouper surging wildly far back in the cave. I gained a bit of line and the fish would take it back. We seesawed back and forth a few times, until I had my spear in my hand, and the carbo charged back deep into the cavern. Pulling the fish back out, I once again had control of the spear, and finally got a hand on the fish itself. Subdued finally,the fish was motionless in my hands. At this point I had not really seen the fish in its totality. Just it's tail and it's head. I checked my gauges, and had plenty of air, but would have to do a decompression due to the time I had spent on the bottom. All in all this happened within five minutes of splashing into the water from the Pelagic.
I ascended and did my decompression, and then decompressed some more. Once the grouper was in the boat, I finally had an appreciation for its bulbous girth and massive size.
We made the weigh-in on time, and when it was my turn to weigh, four hundred plus people erupted in suprise/amazement/reverence. I had first place in the bag.
I tell you what though, if ever see another grouper that huge, I will most likely let it live. Those huge hog snappers on the other hand, are in trouble!
