The International Underwater Spearfishing Association

International Underwater Spearfishing Association

World Record

86.1 kg. , 189.8 lbs.

Tuna, Dogtooth Gymnosarda unicolor

Record Category: Men Sling / Polespear

Diver:		Kunpei KOSAKA
Date:		5/25/2021
Location:		JAPAN

"200lb+ Dogtooth Tuna dream" has been a biggest theme in my polespearing journey for the last 6 years. I know this is definetely the most challenging target for spearfishing. Indeed, for polespearing, that...almost impossible, but worth to try. To land that fish, there are so many variables and everything should be perfect. Tides, Currents, Moon, Water-temp, Weather...only when all of them are perfect, big one will show up from the abyss. Then, you should make deep, long dive to aim them in super strong currents. If you are lucky enough to see the big ones, then shoot it, it will not the end. The devil fish fight so hard. That's the reason why I recognize landing this fish by polespear as one of the toughest mission in spearfishing. --------- Since we had arrived at the island for shooting spearfishing documentary film "Mission 100", 50 days has already passed. We already find this place is "the island of storm". 6 stormy days in every single week. Washed cloths have never be dried. Weather were unexpectedly changing and forecast didn't have any meaning. Bugs, fungi...we all got sick couple of times. Although waiting for the chance in such tough environment, in 90% of drifts, we didn't see any Doggies around. After 250 times of drifts we did in whole trip, suddenly the Poseidon smiled at us. Just before the sunset, in 23rd drift in the day, big schools of doggies were passing by the flasher. I couldn't see them from the surface because of low visibility, so I had to make a dive when I intentionally felt "Oh, it's the place!" and wait for them coming around 30m. Next drift, I dove along the same tactic. At 25m, I saw the big schools of Doggie coming directly to my flasher. Patience. I waited for the biggest ones showing up. 100lb are passing, 120lb, 130lb...after 1' of waiting at 25m, I found really huge one coming from the left hand side. I softly charged the rubber of polespear, and release it to that big one. I remember couple of Glapados sharks were also swirling on my sight, but I didn't care. It hit 15cm far from her belly. She swam directly to the bottom and I saw the first float passing me at 15ft on my ascent. She fought really really hard and took 2 of 3atm floats for multiple times. After minutes of super hard pulling game on the surface, finally we brought her to the surface. I was completely exhausted. Yes, 15' of fighting with 190lb monster doggie in 4kts of currents after 23 drifts in a day is not that easy. On our way back to the port, the clouds disappeared and amazing sunset appeared. It was like celebrating our great journey.