Roni Essex
Freediver, Spearo, Creator
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Roni Essex
Freediver, Spearo, Creator
One of the most important factors in blue water spearfishing is equipment. I mean, you can't go after trophy-sized pelagic predators with an aluminum reel gun, can you?
Well, it seems that you can actually, as this story from Mitch Bourke shows!
Jacob and I were both in the water hunting kingfish at the time, when I had just shot a leatherjacket for dinner, as there seemed to be no kingy action. I ascended to the surface and began to sort out the fish. I took the fish off of my spear and quickly glanced at Jacob to see what he was doing. In the corner of my eye, I noticed a massive tail soaring past him, right behind his back. I swung around and was met with the sight of this monster 142kg 2.74m black marlin just gliding away from us. I yelled out to Jacob to turn around and as he did, the fish did a complete 180 and swam right in front of us. Jacob asked me if I thought he should shoot it on his 1.1m Rob Allen railgun with only a reel, I tried to say yes but I was really just screaming jibberish for Jacob to shoot.
So Jacob turned, lined up the fish, and pulled the trigger. We both paused for a second as the fish slowed right down, acting as if it was a stone shot, but soon enough found its stride and started to strip line from the reel. We yelled out to Josh and he came flying in with the boat. I reloaded my gun and told him to tow me up to the marlin and drop me in. Unfortunately, the fish had other plans and dived deep into the murk every time we got close. Eventually, it slowed down enough for me to catch up after over arm freestyling as hard as I could, meanwhile Jacob was getting towed hard enough through the water that his head was making a big wake and his mask was getting pushed hard against his face.
I finally got close to the fish and looked down to see Jacob's flopper just barely stuck into the fish on the side that he shot it on. Now or never, I took a quick breath and bomb dropped on top of the beast. I took my time and aimed for the head but didn't manage to stone it. At this point, Jacob's spear had fallen out of the fish and it was only my spear that was stuck in, compounding the stress as the flopper hadn't engaged on the other side. It was now my turn to get towed while Jacob grabbed another gun from Josh. We then switched places and I caught up to the marlin once again and put another shot into the fish. Fortunately, that signaled the end as we wrestled the marlin in, got it in our hands, and ended the fight. Finally, it had set in, we had done it all without using a single float. Although getting the fish on the 4.1m boat was no easy task and the boat only just had enough power to get us to shore safely in the massive swell and choppy seas.
For the record, the GoPro kept is getting pushed off my head due to the constant over arm freestyle to catch up to the marlin so I had to make do with what I had. I cut out the long runs from the marlin where @roughasguts_ and I were getting towed as we'd be here forever if I didn't. Also it seems like I missed the initial third shot attempt although the spear bounced off of the marlin's head and left a scar. They're a bloody tough fish.
We're blessed to have been able to experience this moment with such a powerful creature and will be forever grateful. The entire fish was put to use and deeply appreciated by many, even my cats and dogs got to indulge in the offcuts. To think that we were laughing about how ridiculous it would be to shoot a marlin on the drive out to the spot just made it feel like this one was fate. If one person was taken out of the equation, the fish wouldn't be landed. So here's to the best team effort on a fish I've ever been a part of!