The International Underwater Spearfishing Association

International Underwater Spearfishing Association

World Record

9.9 kg. , 21.9 lbs.

Snapper, Mexican Barred Hoplopagrus guentheri

Record Category: Women Speargun

Diver:		Terri Lynn Manna
Date:		2/25/2025
Location:		MEXICO

My dive partner and I were 45 minutes into a shore dive. We'd been fishing this particular spot for a few days already, having seen lots of action and landed other great fish. This day, I'd seen some passing yellowtail I wasn't able to take a shot on, and some smaller grouper and barred pargo on the bottom between 13-16m. On this particular dive, I was feeling very comfortable so was still resting on the bottom at around 1min40sec when I saw a decent barred pargo appear far off to my right. I was slowly sliding my gun over in his direction and once aligned was preparing to take my shot, when from behind him I saw a large shadow approaching. The size of the face was so big and at the limit of my viz, that it took me a few seconds to identify it as a very large barred pargo! The larger pargo moved very confidently and directly straight towards where I was hiding behind a rock, and at about 4 meters distance gave me the first profile angle on his face. I took my shot, which landed firmly a few inches behind his head on the right side. He took off pretty fast and though there were not any large caves around me, there were a lot of boulders and rocks so I decided to pull him up pretty firmly with me for the first meters of my ascent. Once he was away from the structures, I softened my pull a bit and slowly worked him in from the surface. I called to my dive partner, Anna Sara, at this point, and she saw me get the fish in hand, bleed it, brain it, and get it onto my buoy's stringer. There was a lot of squealing and high-fiving as we got a good long look at the size of this fish!
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