International Underwater Spearfishing Association
World Record  
12.7 kg. ,   28.1 lbs.
Tuskfish, Blackspot    Choerodon schoenleinii
Record Category: Men Speargun

Diver: Zachary Alek Brown
Date: 7/12/2020
Location: AUSTRALIA


Saturday night I called my friend tay and asked his plans for Sunday since it was gonna be a nice day and I was suddenly free from obligation. he said he couldn't dive because he was taking his kids fishing. I decided to dive a few shallow spots I knew, I charged my shark shield freedom7 and left the harbour at 7:30am the next morning I headed out solo. around 8am I arrived the first spot (13 meters deep) produced a 41cm coral trout but nothing else desirable. the next spot (8 meters deep) had bait and a large Queensland Grouper but nothing else so I hopped out and as I did I could hear my friends kids shouting my name so I waved them in. we had a quick chat then they headed off to fish their secret spot. I went to my next spot, a wreck in 10 meters that gets hammered by line fishos because it is a short distance from the harbour. the clarity is usually really poor ( 2 meter vis) but I was happy that it was winter ( better vis than summer) and the vis was 4-7 meters. the current wasn't to bad and my first dive down I met a nice blackspot Tuskfish around the 4kg mark but was spooked by another large Queensland Grouper. a few more dives of seeing undesirables ( brown sweetlip, painted sweetlip, Golden trevally, batfish and estuary cod as well as baitfish) I made another dive at the end of the wreck and this massive Blackspot Tuskfish swam out from behind the big metal barrel looking part of the wreck right in front of me, it caught sight of me and started to swim off but I took aim and put a good shot behind its shoulder. it took off and circled back to the metal barrel thing and tangled up and holed up in the barrel thingy, still on the bottom and thinking the spear hadn't gone all the way through I grabbed the spearshaft and pushed hard towards the fish hoping to push the shaft through the other side. ( spear didn't go all the way through but luckily flopper toggled in the gut cavity ) grabbing my gun on the way to the surface I let the line unspool from the reel. thinking it best to get a float I swam back to the boat letting the reel unspool line as I went until I had to let the gun go. I got myself halfway out the water where my float was within reach and cut the dock line from the cleat that my float was clipped to ( the clip wasn't unclipping fast enough ) I used the dock line to tie to my gun to the float and then wound line back onto the reel until it was tight above the fish. I relaxed as best I could and did a breathup then dove down with my knife ready and dispatched the fish while it was holed up. two more dives and I had the fish untangled and secured. I swam back to the boat and put it on the stringer I had hanging from the stern of the boat. I hopped out and took a couple photos that I texted to my friend Tay and then put the fish in the Esky and set up the phone on a self timer and did a self photo shoot. ( I'm hoping it wins the fishing comp that's why the sticker ) I dove again for another hour or so but didn't see anything e

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