The International Underwater Spearfishing Association

International Underwater Spearfishing Association

World Record

54.8 kg. , 120.8 lbs.

Sailfish, Atlantic Istiophorus albicans

Record Category: Men Speargun

Diver:		Nicolas Granger
Date:		11/13/2019
Location:		CAPE VERDE

On November 13, 2019, Andrea de Camilli (founder of Spearfishing Adventures and our spearfishing guide during the trip), my friends Jean-Brieux Letinier, Renaud Herpe, Jean-Sébastien Paley and I decided to do a long distance day trip on a bank far away from Boa Vista. We left Boa Vista at around 08:30 am on board of « Big Time », the Express 40 foot Luhrs with 900 hp owned by Andrea. Captain Luca Da Pozzo sailed around 1 hour and 45 minutes before arriving on the first spot. Just before arriving on the first spot, we saw a beautiful sailfish jumping out of the water. The day was sunny, a bit windy, with waves of 1 - 1.5 m and a murky water temperature of 26° Celsius. We started the second drift of the day around 11:30 am (the depth was between 35 and 25 m). After lying a few minutes on the surface staring at my flasher 8 meters below, I spotted on my right side a sailfish coming straight to the flasher. I took a short breath and ducked down quickly to reach the flasher. At around 8 meters, I saw the sailfish starting to move away and towards the surface. I quickly aimed for a center shot as the fish was already quite far and pressed the trigger of my Abellan Albacore 130. All the action lasted a few seconds. I just had time to see that my shot was well centered in the middle of the body of the fish but I was a bit worried as I knew that I made a long shot. The sailfish took off at full speed in a split second. As I reached the surface, I immediately started to swim as fast as I could, using arms and legs, to try to keep contact with my Rob Allen float. Then ensued a long, fast and exhausting swim. After around 15-20 minutes of chasing the fish, I finally reached my float. In the meantime, captain Luca had picked up Andrea and my 3 friends from the water. Andrea then joined me in the water. During the next 10 minutes, I continued to swim holding my float, trying to oppose only gentle resistance, and I noticed that the fish was starting to slow down. I then started to pull up very slowly my Riffe bungee as I was not sure that my slip tip went completely through the sailfish. Around 30-35 minutes after the shoot, the sailfish was exhausted and lying 8-10 meters underneath, not moving any more. After recovering on the surface from this long and exhausting chase, I breathed up and dived to catch the sailfish’s bill. No need to take a second shot, the fish was almost dead. When I was about to grab the fish, I noted that the slip tip had not gone through and that the tip was only holding by the skin: how lucky I was! I then grabbed the bill and came back up to the surface with this fantastic fish in my hands. I first thanked Andrea and then touched with a lot of respect the body of this emperor of the sea. I was very impressed and overwhelmed, the fish was much bigger than what I thought initially when I took the shot. Andrea immediately told me that the fish was a real beast, a massive fish and congratulated me as well as my 3 friends surroundin