The International Underwater Spearfishing Association

International Underwater Spearfishing Association

World Record

12.2 kg. , 27.0 lbs.

Grouper, Malabar Epinephelus malabaricus

Record Category: Men Sling / Polespear

Diver:		Forrest Galante
Date:		9/26/2017
Location:		MADAGASCAR

After a grueling 8 days of jungle work in the Masoala of Madagascar, I finally had a few free hours. Mitchell grabbed his camera and I my brand new wrist 8ft pole spear with slip tip. We dove around for an hour or so without seeing much of anything. Mitch was filming all the pretty little reef fish etc. The all of a sudden I see this massive grouper dart into a cave. Mitch starts filming and we go into hot pursuit. The cave is long and dark with two minor openings. unfortunately any tie I would go down at one opening the fish would quickly skuffle to the other side, of course I could not reach him from here, so i would go up, take a bath and try the second opening. The fish would once again dart back to the far side of the cave. We placed this game of cat and mouse for over an hour. Mitch lost interest all together and started going back to filming lion fish etc. Finally mitch came over and said, we gotta go. "one last dive" I said. Sneaking down to the cave opening I see the fish taking up the nearest exit. I cock my spear and let it fly. Great hit right through the gill plate. I wrestle with the monster for a min or so and then finally have to go up for air. As i release the spear to being my ascent I watch as my pole spear disappears in a cloud of dust into the cave. Crap. 45 min later of moving rocks around and digging I finally manage to just barely get my hand in the gills, dislodge the fish from the came and bring him up! it was a huge grumpy looking malabar that fed the entire team that night!