The International Underwater Spearfishing Association

International Underwater Spearfishing Association

World Record

8.7 kg. , 19.1 lbs.

Snapper, Dog Lutjanus jocu

Record Category: Men Sling / Polespear

Diver:		Jon-Michael Degidio
Date:		5/29/2016
Location:		BAHAMAS

We started the day off hunting large coral heads in 15-25 feet of water off of Grand Cay and moved out to some deeper coral heads in 40-50 ft. The boat driver dropped us off in two separate groups of 2 divers each on separate heads several hundred feet apart. My dive buddy made the first from on the head we were dropped on and dove to the left of it off on the sand. As he was down I saw the snapper sitting on top of the coral head, but I didn't want to chase after it since my buddy was down. I waited till he surfaced then saw down a crevice in the coral head. I bottomed out about 5 feet off the bottom and just above the last undercut of the head. As I stopped, the snapper came out from under the ledge and turned to the right giving me a broadside shot. I didn't want to aim for the head since I knew it was a big snapper so I aimed at its pec fin and landed a solid shot. The fish went crazy but I grabbed the end of the pole spear and was able to wrestle it out from underneath the ledge and grabbed it. I broke the surface holding the fish as tight as I could and waived the boat down. We threw the fish on ice since we didn't have a certified scale. We came back on the 31st and I measured the fish and then froze it because I couldn't find a certified scale right away. Finally, I stopped looking at marinas and found a fish market with one.