The International Underwater Spearfishing Association

International Underwater Spearfishing Association

World Record

40.2 kg. , 88.7 lbs.

Marlin, Striped Kajikia audax

Record Category: Men Sling / Polespear

Diver:		Peter Correale
Date:		11/26/2017
Location:		MEXICO

While enjoying thanksgiving dinner with my good friend Tim Hatler and his family, we received a report of crazy Stripe Marlin action over on the Pacific side. Our contact over in the area informed us that he had been offshore for the last couple of days taking a film crew to free dive on bait balls being chased by schools of Stripe Marlin. . I made a call the next morning to my buddy and Dive/Business partner at “The Waterman’s Guide”, Chris Gates. I told him to drop everything and book a flight immediately, and be here the next day for a quick 3 day strike mission. By lunch time Saturday, Chris had touched down in Cabo where we had one of our drivers pick him up and bring him to meet me in La Paz where we would drive another 4 hours north to a small port town, from there we would cross over to a small island where we would call its small fish camp “home” for the next three days. . The weather forecast held, leaving us with clear skies and very minimal sea state, and before we knew it, frigates were spotted circling up off our bow. We raced towards the action, and came upon a sight that dreams are made of, we had schools of Stripe Marlin busting all around us for what seemed to be as far as the eye could see. Spearing a Marlin on a pole spear would prove to not be as easy as I thought, as I found it very difficult to time the drops right to get close enough to the steady moving fish to allow for a connecting shot with the short range offered by a pole spear. By mid afternoon i was starting to gas out from all the repetitive drops, but i was not willing to give up. I seemed to get closer to the fish on every try, and i knew that it was only a matter of time before luck and timing would come together. We chased down another small bait ball, and as we pulled up on the action, i slid into the blue water. It all happened very fast, just as the bubbles started to clear away from my mask, a good size stripey turned his trajectory to head straight towards me in pursuit of one of the small bait fish that had strayed from the group. I barely had time to think about the shot, and luckily i had pulled up on my pole spear before entering the water. I connected with a mid body shot, and with the very close distance and the added force of the fish swimming at me, the entire injector rod of the spear went all the way through the Marlin. The fish became stuck on the pole spear while i was holding it for a few seconds before making a hard run and then sounding. I had a 100 foot static line with a short bungie clipped off to the back of my Neritic pole spear, and a three atmos float at the end of the line. Chris jumped in with the camera to as I fought the fish gingerly, as i didn’t want to risk bending or breaking anything on the pole spear and losing my potential world record. I was able to pull and clip the fish up to about twenty feet from the surface, from there i made a dive to recover my catch without the use of a second shot.
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