Fish Tales

We believe that behind every fish is a memorable story. Whether it's the heart-pounding chase, the camaraderie shared with fellow divers, or the serendipitous encounter with marine life, these world-wide experiences deserve to be celebrated.

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CUBERA SNAPPER | COSTA RICA

BETTER LUCKY THAN GOOD

Our Central American fishing vessel, commonly known as a “Panga”, motored its way across the beautiful, yet equally powerful Pacific Ocean. Sitting on its starboard gunwale, I looked back over my shoulder, taking in the serene view. I noticed how the jungle covered mountains converged with the black sand beaches below. As our Panga steadily ventured further offshore, I watched as the city of Jaco, Costa Rica faded in the distance.

A premiere bachelor party destination renowned for its lively nightlife including the late “Beatle Bar”, Jaco is also a dream location for serious anglers in pursuit of world class fish. Trophy sized Marlin, Sailfish, Mahi-Mahi and Tuna can all be found in Costa Rican waters. The most coveted prize for many spearfishermen though, including myself, is the Cubera Snapper.

The Cubera is the largest of the snapper species, growing to weights in excess of 100 pounds. It is often found in deep, murky waters with swift currents. Its sheer size, cunningness, brute strength, and large, fang-like teeth make for an intimidating opponent. Just setting your eyes on a Cubera is a difficult task, but the battle only begins after a spear is sent through one of these beasts. Many a diver has been on the losing end in a battle with a Cubera, which often results in a bent shaft, broken shooting line, or worse.

As the boat slowly came to a stop, our fishing guide, CJ, told everyone to gear up. I noticed that my wet suit fit much tighter, especially around the belly section. I thought to myself, “Perhaps my wetsuit has shrunk a bit”. After all, it had been more than three months since diving last. It was February, and the past three months had been filled with early mornings in the duck blind where I had over-indulged in Mountain Dew’s and smoked more Marlboro Red’s than I’d like to admit. All geared up and having taken satisfaction in knowing I was fresh off an outstanding hunting season; I gracefully entered the cool Pacific waters for the first time.

Ecstatic for the chance at a fish of a lifetime, a monster Cubera Snapper, I took a big breath of the warm, humid air and descended for the rocky reef below. Only seconds later, I breached the water’s surface and emerged, gasping for air. Filled with instant regret, I realized that I had just traveled more than a thousand miles for a spearfishing trip and came totally out of shape and unprepared. I thought to myself, “Oh no! What have I done!”, and was immediately interrupted by CJ, as he swam over to me and asked, “Do you remember how to dive?” Also in the water with me were my dive partners, Erik and Jamie, both with bodies chiseled from stone, they had already performed so called “warm up dives” to 80 plus feet. As we regrouped on the boat, Jamie walked over and brazenly grabbed a roll of my belly fat, making a comment which I’ll leave to your imagination. Not the start I was hoping for!

As the day wore on, we had yet to see a Cubera, and for that matter, any sizable fish worth shooting. My diving was still horrendous at best, and to make matters worse, the visibility was less than 10 feet - apparently the result of a recent earthquake which had kicked up silt and other sediments from the ocean’s floor - Just my luck!

Knowing that double stuffed Reese’s, fresh empanadas, local pastries, and ice-cold. Imperial beers patiently waited for me on the boat, it took all my mental strength and discipline to stay in the water and push through just a few more dives. After another couple empty-handed dives to around 60 feet, and thoughts of an ice-cold cerveza occupying my mind, I bargained with myself, “One more good dive, Joe, and those Imperial’s are all yours”. I took my time on the surface so I could “breath-up” properly for my final dive of the day. Not knowing that I was about to witness something that would forever be imprinted in my memory, I made my duck dive, closed my eyes, and sounded for the depths below.

At around 60 feet, I could feel the ocean wrap me in its arms and pull me deeper into the abyss. Fully relaxed, embracing the pressure which surrounded me from all over, I gently cleared my ears and slowly opened my eyes. To my amazement, I saw a swarm of large, beautiful, dark bronze fish swimming circles around me. A tornado of trophy Cubera, at least twenty of them, and I was in the eye of the storm. Knowing this was my moment to shine, I slowly extended my five-band Kinetic speargun towards the school of Cubera and adjusted the float line on my right-hand side. But to my horror, with just a few twitches of their big broom-like tails, the school of fish, had spooked and vanished into the murky water below, never to be seen again - All except for one. The lone Cubera swam closer and closer, before turning and presenting a point blank, broadside shot. I locked this majestic fish in on my sites and just as I was about to pull the trigger, I noticed the fish was blind, at least in one eye! Its eye was completely frosted over and there was a giant scar across the fish’s face. I thought to myself “This poor bastard can’t even
see me!”, and without hesitation or remorse, squeezed the trigger. BOOM. Direct Hit. I could feel the concussion from the shaft blasting its way through the Cubera and watched as the slip tip buried itself into place just behind the fish’s gill plate. Letting the float line slip through my fingertips, I made my way back to the surface.

After a brief battle, but having fought to the bitter end, the Cubera was finally in my hands. After dispatching this incredible fish, I swam to our Panga and watched in delight as our captain, Sean, lifted my trophy fish into the boat. In exchange for my fish, Sean handed me a well-deserved, frosty-cold, Imperial – the National beer of Costa Rica – and a homemade beef empanada which I smothered in hot sauce. With a cold beer in hand and crumbs falling from my mouth, I shouted “Hey guy’s, I left you a few smaller one’s down there!”, to Erik and Jamie, who were still diving.

Another two full, hard days of Costa Rica diving would pass without any of us seeing another Cubera. It just goes to show you that sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good!

- Joe Danger

AFRICAN POMPANO | NORTHERN FLORIDA

BIRTHDAY DOUBLE-UP

It was my birthday, and all I wanted to do was shoot an AP. Before that day, I have never even seen one in the water (that wasn’t shot already). We were diving some deep wrecks. The visibility was not the best, but it was pretty fishy that day. I started my decent, grunting all the way down. A few big AJs approached me, but I wanted nothing to do with them. I turned around and saw two beautiful AP working their way towards me. I put a solid spine shot on him, easily pulling him up with me to the surface. The stoke was high! I’m very thankful Mike had his camera to capture this beautiful photo. Mike: “Go deeper to the bluer water, then on your way up look up at the sun.” I understood the assignment.

We then went to a different wreck. I had no expectation of seeing another AP, or shooting one for that matter. I was already so happy that my birthday wish came true. On my way down I decided to grunt again, just for shits-n-gigs. I continued to grunt, patiently waiting for another opportunity. I turn around and BOOM. I see three MONDO AP in the distance. I grunted some more, waiting to see if I could close the gap without spooking them. I sure as shit did, shooting a MONDO that was almost as long as me. This time, I shot it through the cheeks, so it took me for a ride. I tried to put the brakes on him, but it pulled me down until Cooper grabbed me. Mike and Chad helping out, cheering while I tried to wrangle it. The stoke was even higher. Not only did I shoot my first AP before this, but I also then shoot a second one…WAY bigger than the first. To go from never seeing an AP, to shooting two in one day was so cool for me. This was one of those fish that I’ve been wanting to shoot for so long. Hell of a birthday. Hell of a trip. Hell of a crew. Hell of a photo."

-Nikki Falvey

WAHOO | COSTA RICA

It was a three-day dive trip in Costa Rica, and I hadn't really shot anything worth a damn the entire trip. Everyone else on the boat shot wahoo already. It was the end of the last day, and I was really hoping for a big Cubera. I did one last deep drop...no Cubera. As I am making my way up, at about 55ft, I see two GIANT wahoo. They were the perfect distance, so I was able to put a solid shot in one of them. On my way up after shooting the fish, I signaled to CJ to not pull the line. He was anticipating me shooting a Cubera, so I had to tell him to let the fish run so the shot wouldn't pull out. The wahoo took off with the float and put up a hell of a fight, pulling CJ and I down 10ft at a time as we were trying to finesse up this beast. It ended up being the biggest fish of the trip, weighing at about 70lbs. Sean, our guide, said it was one of the biggest wahoo ever landed on his boat. It was the perfect ending to the trip. You don't usually see wahoo that big in Central America, so to land a big one like that was such an epic feeling.

-Cooper Baker

MANGROVE SNAPPER | NORTHERN FLORIDA

MANGBERA

At the end of a long day drifting for pelagics, I knew I wanted to go home with a nice snapper. Luckily, my buddy said he had some spots we could check out on the way in. We made it to our first spot in about 80ft. Chad told me the current would be strong and the vis would be bad, so I would only have one drop and it had to be exactly on the spot. Essentially, that meant I had to breathe-up on the boat instead of the normal, relaxing in-water breathe-up. Each time, our captain would put us directly over the spot and I had a chance to take one breath before each dive. Due to the bad vis, I had only two indicators I was getting close to the structure; the first being the smack in the face of ice-cold water after 60ft and the second was when the bait fish appeared.

When I made it to the ground, the real search began. At the bottom I saw schools of out-of-season Red Snapper with a mixture of the Mangrove Snapper I was targeting. I shot my first Mangrove which got wrapped up in the structure and I had to play a game of cat and mouse with a small Bull Shark to retrieve it. On the next drop, I rushed the hunt and ending up shooting at a quartering angle, not allowing the flopper to deploy and the fish ripped off. Continuing to the next, I shot another one. This time the shaft pinned the snapper to the sand, but again the flopper didn’t deploy. At this point, I was starting to get frustrated, but watching Chad shoot a big mangrove on his first dive motivated me to keep diving in the uncomfortable conditions.

By this time, it was the end of the day. I was tired and my body is confused from being in the blazing sun on the surface, to the stark contrast of what felt like (to a South Floridian) Antarctic temperatures on the sea floor, but I pushed on hoping for a big one. We made it to the last spot of the day and just before I hit the, ground a Cubera-sized Mangrove Snapper darts in front of me and within a split second I pull the trigger. I saw him takeoff and get wrapped up around the structure. I had my buddy go down and assess the tangled mess. When Chad completed his recovery breaths, the excitement in his voice told me I finally got the big one I was searching for. On my final dive of the day, I made a calm descent and untangled this massive Mangrove and swam up with a smile so big my mask leaks water. On the surface my dive buddy, Chad and friends, Nikki and Cooper, realized I just shot my personal best Mangrove snapper, weighing in at a whopping 12.7 pounds and measured 30.25 inches to the fork. It felt really good to be congratulated by my friends when I got on the boat after relentlessly diving in less than favorable conditions for this one fish. The hard work I put in resulted in a huge pay off.

-Michael Buller

BLUEFIN TUNA | CALIFORNIA

PAY TO PLAY

My first guided spearfishing trip paid off...BIG time. I had seen photos of bluefin tuna being speared off California for a few years but couldn’t believe people were actually shooting fish that big. Back home in South Florida, a 16-inch hogfish or a barely legal grouper was a big deal for me. The thought of spearing a 100+ lb. fish seemed unreal. Honestly, I was pretty drunk when I booked the trip. After a night out, I was following CJ on Instagram and watching his stories of people shooting bluefin tuna and saw he had a opening for a two-day trip the next month. I drunkenly sent him a deposit that night and bought a plane ticket.

Fast forward to the next month and I’m on a boat with a couple strangers, chasing down schools of hundreds of bluefin tuna and punching dives to 60ft in cold, murky water. The whole trip made sense when I got vortexed by a school of tuna. On the first drop of the first day, I shot my first fish, and I was stoked. A feeling of accomplishment and pure joy that was only surpassed by the second drop of the day, 30 minutes later when we came across another school of bluefin. I took a final breath sitting on the boat and dove straight into the water, kicking with my eyes closed till I felt like I was around 60ft. I sat in the dark water alone for a few seconds until I was met by a wall of bluefin, and this time the fish were much bigger. I froze up and watched them swim by me. Luckily, the school came back for a second pass and by then CJ swam down to me. I guess he thought I was in range, because he pushed me forward towards the fish and I sent a hail Mary shot. I was aiming at the head of the fish and hit it in the last vertebrae of the tail, which goes to show how far the shot was and how quick these fish move. A few moments later this picture was taken. We estimated it to weigh around 125lbs.

-Zach Shevlin

CUBERA SNAPPER | SOUTH FLORIDA

There’s nothing like when a plan comes together. One early April morning, I looked out the window and all I saw was a slicker beaut out front. I headed out on the flats boat with my buddy Lucas, with hopes of finding an elusive Cubera Snapper at a shallow spot. We had seen him several times before, but he never presented a shot. Luck was on our side that day. After tossing a couple of sardines prior to jumping in, I finally caught him off guard and nailed him with a long-distance stone shot!

-Joaquin Cisternas

HOGFISH | MIDDLE GROUNDS

We were freediving the middle grounds. I decided to use a pole spear and try to find a big grouper. My buddy, Oliver Kilian, had just shot a gag and it got tangled on the bottom in 100’. I dove down with the intention of freeing his fish, but when I started to get down to depth this monster hogfish came right in and gave me the perfect shot. The hogfish ended up being 14 1/2lbs and won the Hogfish category in the Florida Spearfishing Tournament. Oliver's grouper ended up coming free on its own and was pulled up at the same time as the hog. We shot several more stud hogfish that day as well.

-Matt Warner

YELLOWFIN TUNA | COSTA RICA

Coop and I were on a spearfishing trip in Costa Rica with CJ. It was one of my favorite trips I have ever been on and my first time going for tuna. The people, the location, the lodging, the food - everything was amazing. It was the first dive day of the trip, and it was just Coop and I with CJ, the captain, and the first mate. We launched the Panga from the beach and headed out to the deep blue in search of yellowfin tuna.

We were specifically looking for birds diving and swarming all around the water. Once we spotted the birds, we would look for the dolphins. The dolphins would be following the bait and hopefully leading the schools of tuna. Targeting tuna is a whole other type of spearfishing. There is no time for the traditional, relaxing breathe-up. It's a constant adrenaline rush and pushing your limits to land the trophy yellowfin tuna.

The conditions were just about perfect that day. Barely any clouds in the sky, seas were calm, visibility was what you would hope for while in deeper waters. We found the birds pretty quickly, then the dolphin, and finally the tuna. Cooper and I sat on either side of the Panga, float lines out, trying to breathe-up on the boat, CJ ready with the reel gun for a back-up shot, and all of us waiting for our captain, Michael, to say, "LISTOOOO!". As soon as we hit the water, we had time for a few kicks and punched it to at least 50-60ft, which is what you need to do if you want to see schools of big tuna. If anyone has gone for tuna, you know the famous saying, "DIVE, DIVE, DIVE!". It's intense and so damn fun!

Both Coop and I missed tuna on our first drop. With it being my first time going for tuna, I wasn't mad about it. I was so amped up and ready for another drop. CJ gave me a few pointers, and we did it again. We found the school again, jumped off the side of the Panga, punched it to 60ft and waited. In that moment, I was so hyper-focused on waiting for the wall of tuna that I didn't enjoy the beauty of the huge pod of dolphin swimming by me. Finally, I see the tuna start to swim by. I picked one out, lined up towards the tip of the nose, closed the gap, and shot my first yellowfin tuna, a nice 40-50lb butterball. We let it run, then started pulling it up with the float line, foot by foot. We got it up to about 30ft and CJ swam down and finished him with a beautiful second shot. To say I was stoked is an understatement. A few dives after that I shot a 90-100lber. To top it all off, Coop finally shot his first, long-awaiting, well-earned tuna and CJ put one on the boat as well. It was one of the most fun days of spearfishing I've ever had.

-Nikki Falvey

COBIA | GULF OF MEXICO

We went out to dive on May 2nd, 2021, to target Amberjack since the season just opened. My dive buddy, Austin, and I hopped in the water on this wreck in 100 feet. We immediately got swarmed by big mangrove snapper. Austin doesn't hesitate and shoots a stud mangrove and begins to retrieve him, as I'm breathing up getting ready to make a drop on the wreck he starts screaming and shaking me in the water. I had no idea what was going on and stuck my head above the water so he could talk and all I hear is him shouting, "Shoot the cobia!" When I dunked my head back in the water, I saw the cobia swimming away from me at about 10 feet beneath the surface. I immediately dropped down and started to swim after him to get in range, then I pulled the trigger. I got a good holding shot and the cobia went nuts, swam towards the bottom and dumped all of the line out of my reel.

After about 20 minutes of fighting him, I got him around 20 feet below me, close enough for my dive buddy to get a second shot in the fish to make sure we landed him. At this point, Austin still hasn't taken his mangrove off his shaft yet while helping me fight the fish, so he shoots the cobia with the mangrove still on. As soon as he put the second shot in, the cobia went berserk again, taking away all of the line I gained on him in previous 10 minutes. As the fish screamed away, Austin's shaft pulls out and I had to fight the fish all by myself again.

After another 10 minutes of fighting the fish, a bull shark shows up and buzzes around us, acting aggressive. I called the boat, and my dad jumped in the water to take care of shark duty and poke him off of us. After another 5 minutes of fighting the cobia, I had him in shooting range for Austin again. This time he loaded both bands, swam down, and makes a kill shot on the fish. At this point, I knew the cobia was big but I was guessing he was around 50-60 pounds. After making the kill shot, Austin who is 6'2 200 pounds grabs the cobia and swims up with it. My dad and I went absolutely ballistic, screaming, realizing the cobia was just as long as Austin and was way bigger than I first thought. As soon as he hit the surface he screams, and we all three went nuts high-fiving and celebrating landing the fish.

As were high-fiving, I remembered the shark and dunked my head in the water to see that he was b-lining straight for my dad at full speed. I ripped his speargun out of his hands and got between him and the shark to poke it off. As soon as I did this, the shark breaks stride and veered off into the distant blue never to be seen again.

We swim back to the boat screaming and loaded the fish up onto the transom. The rest of the crew on the boat went nuts. This is my personal best cobia speared or caught, and I doubt I will ever land one this size again. We didn't have a scale on the boat, but he measured 60 inches, and we weighed him as soon as we got back to the hill where the scale said 101 pounds. I entered him in the Florida Spearfishing Tournament and ended up winning 1st place in the cobia division.

-Caleb Joiner

BROOMTAIL GROUPER | MEXICO

Before we knew it, we were on the final day of our expedition in Mexico. We were all ready for redemption after learning lessons on days one and two and were specifically hoping for a trophy broomtail grouper. In Baja, it's common to see giant Gulf grouper, but the broomtails don't get as big. We arrived at our last spot and were greeted with perfect conditions again: top-to-bottom visibility and flat-calm seas. I came up empty on my first dive, but Tommy and Stove Exotic had both shot giant Gulf groupers. Yet again, my dive buddies had their trophies, and I did not. I tried, and tried, and tried, but kept coming up empty-handed. Finally, I heard CJ yell,

"COOPER! BIG CUBERA! DIVE!!!". I searched, spotted the fish, and punched a dive as fast as possible. During my descent toward the Cubera, I spotted a shadow just a little further away- it was a giant broomtail! It was almost like this fish chose me. As I approached, he turned and looked at me. Just as he turned to swim away, I pulled the trigger and landed a great holding shot. I surfaced, pulling the fish with me, and Stove immediately placed a second shot in it to be safe. Finally! I had my trophy fish on the last day.

At this point, we were all thrilled with the fish we'd shot on our excursion, but we weren't ready to quit early. We dove a while longer, shooting some nice Colorado and Cubera snappers. We also spotted some more nice grouper but passed on shooting more than our self-imposed limits. Eventually, the coolers were all filled to the brim, and we decided to end our hunt. Fileting all of the fish took some time, but we had a great bounty to bring back with us. Of course, not all the fish made it back to the States. We ate like royalty on the boat that night, too. I still remember how incredible every meal was - and they all featured fish shot during the trip!

-Cooper Baker

CUBERA SNAPPER | PANAMA

My Dad has dreamed of taking a sailboat around the world his whole life and he is doing it now. A few years ago, he took the boat to Panamá. I flew in with my sister and we sailed to the San Blas Islands. We were very excited to spearfish; the water was clear with breathtaking reef. We were not impressed with the shootable fish in the area. After searching the reef for a few hours, we made our way back to the boat with a few trigger fish. While we were cleaning fish, 2 good-sized Cubera snapper swam under the boat. I hunted these smart fish for over an hour. In the clear water, it was near impossible to get close enough. Finally, some nurse sharks stirred up the sand on the bottom. I laid in the sandy cloud and waited for the snapper to come in. I got one!! This is my biggest Cubera I have ever shot and I definitely earned it. We took it to the island and shared it with locals. Full video on my YouTube!

-Julie Higgs

DOGTOOTH TUNA | TAHITI

I just got a beautiful new speargun thanks to Joints Spearfishing Tahiti. Even though l have only been hunting with a polespear the past 4 years, I was so excited to dial in my new gun and go target some tuna at our new atoll. After a week of working out my back muscles and practicing with the speargun, I was finally able to load it and got the aim down.

I saw this fish swim into the flasher and decided to take a drop down just to see how close I could get. I didn't originally intend on shooting him because he looked too big from the surface, and we are cautious of ciguatera here. As I dropped down, I turned and realized the fish came swimming right into my face. I also realized he wasn't too big (dogtooth tuna get over 200lbs!) so I decided to take the shot! I lined up my Joints Spearfishing speargun and speared the fish right through the gill plate into the vitals just shy of stoning it.

However, taking the shot is only 30% of the battle! These fish are arguably the most powerful fish to spear. The tuna took off taking one of our two floats under. Then, over 20 sharks came in and swarmed the fish. We are convinced these sharks were confused about what was happening because they took a couples passes at the fish but not a single bite! ... thankfully!

Cole helped me pull in the float line fast while fending off the sharks and Alex jumped in the dinghy and helped me lift the tuna out of the water. Hunting doggies is definitely a team sport! A big thanks to Cole and Alex for having my back on this beautiful fish and Joints Spearfishing Tahiti for the amazing gear!

After giving some fish to the only 2 locals here, we still have fish for days! Think we can get tired of tuna?

-Steph Schuldt

WAHOO | NORTHEAST FLORIDA

It was just a normal commercial fishing trip for us on fishing vessel Seven Arrows out of Mayport, Florida. We mainly target vermillion snapper over reefs. So, as we’re fishing, we spot this dark blue figure in the water, and we knew exactly what it was. The fish I’d dreamt about in my sleep, the fish I’d drool about when I’d see French Polynesian monsters being shot. This fish I’d been after for so long now 3 straight years of searching and searching, countless dives and countless mistakes all leading up to this moment. I get my gear on as fast as I could and load my Spearblu Titan 3 130cm up and jump in the water. After a few passes of seeing this fish, I had no idea about the size, I just knew he was big. As our crew member Danny McDonald and captain Richie Dyal (my dad) load me up with chum this monster comes right in on me. I line up and take the shot I’d been waiting on for so long and stone this fish with a spine shot. and that is how I shot my first wahoo.

-Wyatt Dyal

COBIA | FL GULF COAST

This fish was years in the making. I had been spearfishing for around 8 years at this point, and it was one of the few gulf coast species I had yet to shoot myself. It had gotten to the point where I was convinced, I had a Cobia curse. I had been a part of countless amount of Cobia that had been shot and landed, however I myself had yet to be the one to place the first holding shot on one. This was October 2021, the water had just started to cool off, visibility was slowly improving, and most importantly the fish were moving. This was a last-minute afternoon trip. Jack Mitchel, better known as Captain Jack Spearo, reached out the night before and said he was going to be in the Tampa area the next day and had the afternoon free. Wanted to see if we’d be able to do a little afternoon strike mission.

We were not going to be able to push off the dock till about 1pm, and I needed to be back by 5pm so our window was rather small, and with limited “super close” options I knew the best chance was going to be a wreck. While the deep water gulf wrecks are almost hold an abundance of fish to shoot, our “close” wrecks, can often be hit or miss. But expectations were low, and a Hail Mary-send was the best bet. It was a chilly and windy October afternoon, but we punched out about 20 miles to my favorite close wreck. An old shrimp boat, which remnants lay scattered in about 45 feet of water. Visibility here is hit or miss, and often made worse by the residential bait schools that call this wreck their permanent home. Schools of bait often times extending from the surface all 45ft to the bottom tend to obscure visibility. These bait balls often make your descent completely blind, as you’re often times swallowed almost instantly. Today was no exception. Visibility was around 30ft which for us is about as good as it gets. I made a drop, and was almost instantly engulfed in a cloud of bait. I broke out of the bait at about 30ft, and was met with an incredible sight. The bait was separated into 2 layers. Almost like an Oreo, a black wall of bait above, and below me. In the middle was every spearfishermen’s dream. Huge school of 60+ pound amberjack, a school of permit, and about half a dozen sharks. However one of these sharks was not like the rest. Following behind like a well trained pack of dogs was about 5 Cobia. Everything lined up, and a solid holding shot allowed me to wrestle this fish almost to the surface, followed by a well placed finishing shot from Jack, and the just like that curse had finally been lifted.

- Matt Jonson

AFRICAN POMPANO | FL GULF COAST

I remember hearing my phone ping with a text message reading, “You want to dive Monday? African Pompano 60, 80 maybe 100 ft drops?” Immediately I was in, didn’t matter what I had going on, I was making it on that boat.

African Pompano was one of the fish at the top of my list that I hadn’t had the opportunity to shoot. I had seen some juveniles not worthy of shooting and had seen friends land one, but my opportunity still hadn’t come.

4AM mornings are a little easier on dive days (LOL) and we launched before the sun came up. I settled into a bean bag and tried to take a nap on our way to the first spot. As I woke up from my nap the sun was just starting to come up. The water was absolute glass, I knew it was going to be a good day. As I started gearing up the excitement started to build and as I hopped in, I tried to contain my excitement and slow my heart rate so I could take my first dive. My friend, Drake, took the first drop and as he came back to the surface, he said he had an AP on. Immediately any effort of calming myself down was out the window. The AP were here, I just needed to put myself in the right position to get the chance at a good shot.

I put my snorkel in my mouth, put my face in the water, closed my eyes and began my breathe up. I took my final breath in and started to descend. I felt the all too familiar feeling of the pressure in my chest starting to build and I knew I was about 60 ft deep. I started slowing down and began to level out.

Off in the distance I could see what looked like two African pompano in the distance. I waved my flasher and I could see two huge AP’s slowly swimming towards me. I lined up my gun and slowly waited for the right shot. I pulled my trigger and immediately my reel started screaming. I started heading for the surface and attached my belt reel. We slowly began to work the fish up to the surface and I tried to contain my stoke until the fish was secured. As we pulled it up closer and closer I could see the true size of this fish. The iridescent silver color glistened in the water and I couldn’t believe that on my first drop I was able to land this guy.

As the day continued every spot we dove felt like an absolute dream—huge schools of jacks circling small schools of permit and tons of snapper— it just made every dive feel truly magical.

Not to mention sharing these unforgettable moments with great company, sharing stories and working together to secure every fish.

As we rode in at sunset after a full day of diving, completely delirious I just couldn’t believe how perfectly the day came together. I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude for my friends and the opportunity for another amazing day on the water.

- Sydney Atkinson

BLUEFIN TUNA | CALIFORNIA

Three days offshore in California...water is cold. I packed my 5mm wetsuit in preparation to hunt Bluefin Tuna. The first day offshore, we headed south. Unfortunately, there were no tuna, but one of the boys managed to pluck a pacific yellowtail off a kelp patty. We also got to swim with some of the coolest creatures - MOLA MOLA, also known as Sunfish.

The next day we headed north. The word was that the tuna were pushing up the coast towards Catalina Island. Truth is, we don’t have these fish on a leash, they could be literally anywhere!

We gear up the boat and head about three hours northwest of San Diego. At around 11am, Captain Max saw the first sign of big Bluefin in the area. We scattered around the boat gathering our masks, snorkels, GoPros, fins & loaded the spearguns. We had two divers on each side of the boat, breathing up on the gunnels, while Captain put us on top of the school.

I was clearing my mind, listening to the white-water flush behind the engines. I hear Max, "DIVE, DIVE, DIVE!" - the song of "hurry up, get down there, and shoot a fish!"

You usually only have about 30-60 seconds to shoot a tuna. These fish are fast and sometimes spiral around like a tornado, then POOF...they're gone.

I took my first drop. I would have landed one, but it was so long since I pulled the trigger on those big tuna guns, and I didn’t pull hard enough. When I realized that the gun didn’t go off, I looked at for 2 seconds like, “what the heck”, and then pulled it completely missing.

On my second drop, a huge school of 150-250lb bluefin tuna swarmed me. I dropped down to 40 feet, waited with my gun tucked, and watched with my peripheral vision to see which tuna was going to give me the best shot. Swimming from my right side, the fish I picked quickly passed in front of me. I extended the gun, lined up the tuna's nose with the end of my spear, and fired! BIG TUNA ON!!! This fish ripped the buoy easily 100 feet underwater.

CJ and I battled this fish to the surface, being it was the first (and only) fish of the trip hitting the deck of the boat. I had CJ swim down to put the kill shot in the fish. We each had a line in our hands and pulled away from each other, making sure the lines weren't getting crossed or tangled. We brought this beast of a fish to the surface...weighing 191lbs!

- Kelly Young