International Underwater Spearfishing Association
World Record  
6.7 kg. ,   14.7 lbs.
Snapper, Dog    Lutjanus jocu
Record Category: Men Sling / Polespear

Diver: Daniel Ash
Date: 3/10/2014
Location: BAHAMAS


It was my day off from work in Great Inagua, we had launched early on the southern side of the island. We ran westward hugging the coastline and dodging coral heads. We spent the morning spearing and slowly moving back towards the boat launch, around 4pm we set the anchor and hopped in about 25-30ft of water with large coral heads rising up to almost the surface. We all had seen multiple groupers and snapper in this area and were checking holes. I had seen a large grouper disappear in a hole, and dove down to check the hole. After many dives and checking of every possible exit I gave up on the grouper. Two of the guys (Doug and Fernando) went back to the boat while Tony and I swam the long way to the boat, coming back to the area where I had seen the large grouper earlier, a small black grouper popped out and Tony gave chase leaving me hovering over the hole. I decided to check this hole one last time before returning to the boat, I took a breath and dove down to my surprise there was a large dog snapper staring at me from the hole. It caught me off guard and uncocked with my polespear. It quickly darted in the hole, knowing where the exit hole was I swam over took a quick breath and loaded up spear. I dove down and waited at the exit. The dog snapper swam right up to the exit of the hole, and bam! I unloaded the spear into his face. There was a quick fight with the snapper trying to return to the hole but I pulled him out and quickly swam him over to the boat and passed him to Doug standing on the front of the boat. Unfortunately I didn't get any of this on my underwater camera, just me passing the fish to Doug.

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