World Records for Narrowbarred spanish mackerel
Greg Pickering
Current World-record narrow-barred Spanish mackerel for men—46
kilograms (101.3) pounds Dorre Island, Western Australia, July 18, 2004 by Greg
Pickering
On Sunday the 18th
of July 2004 five of us headed out to Dorre Island on the Red Emperor for a days
Spearfishing. They were my daughter Janessa 16, Troy Munroe, Aaron Hudson and captain
Deane Wiggins a local farmer from Carnarvon W.A.
Dorre Island
lies 50km (30 miles) out from Carnarvon. The trip to the ‘Gap’ (a channel
between Bernier and Dorre Island) took nearly 2 hours. Conditions were excellent on the
seaward side of the islands and we did several drops along the outside of Dorre as we
worked our way down to the southern point of the island, Cape St.Crique. On the previous
day I had seen a giant Spanish Mackerel twice in the area and although I had got within
range of a very long shot, I didn’t fire because I feared losing the fish.
We dived around the Cape for several hours. All five of us dived. The underwater
visibility was about 20-25 metres. (65-80 feet) and the water temperature was 22 degrees C
or 71.6 degrees F. I saw numbers of Spanish Mackerel but I let them swim pass while I
waited for a bigger fish. I swam with my daughter Janessa in 10 metres (33 feet) of water but we returned to the boat, as
there were several Bronze Whaler Sharks racing about even though we took no fish.
I returned to the water and twice I returned to the vessel with some reef fish to take
home. Troy, Deane and Aaron were near the boat on the seaward side. I again returned to
the area where I had seen the big fish on the previous day.
Around 1.30pm a school of 30 Spanish Mackerel came by in 10 metres of water over flat
bottom. Some of the fish in the front of the school looked to be over 27kg (60lbs) in
weight as they steadily passed by. Then I noticed a big fish in the rear of the school so
I dived quietly to the bottom. The fish came over towards me but turned and headed away. I
returned to the surface again and grabbed one breath just as the big fish turned back and
came under me again.
I managed to sink down without startling the fish and place a good shot in the solid part
of the body, right in the middle but just above the spine. The shot appeared to hurt the
fish but I was unsure if the spear shaft had fully penetrated. The fish hesitated
momentarily and then bolted away and almost instantly I was on the end of my 25 metre
(80ft) rig line hanging on to my buoy. I swam rapidly so as to take the load of my rig.
The nylon rig has no bungee system.
Several Bronze Whaler Sharks chased the big Spaniard and I could see the fish from 25
metres away. I retrieved the line in while constantly swimming and I pulled the fish up to
within about 7 metres of me fairly quickly. (This was no longer than a few minutes). I
glanced around to check for sharks and there were none in sight by this time so I pulled
the fish towards me noticing that the spear shaft had fully penetrated and the single
flopper had opened. Soon after I had both arms wrapped around the centre section of the
fish before getting one hand (my right) into the gill section to take firm hold.
I swam the catch back to the Red Emperor about 250 metres away. I arrived at the back of
the vessel just as Troy, Deane and Aaron arrived with their Mackerel catches. Janessa was
in the vessel and I pulled the Mackerel into the boat while asking her to stand well clear
of the fish’s head, which contain a row of sharp teeth.
The fish looked big and I couldn’t fully lift it above my head. I covered it up with
some wet hessian bags and we made the long trip back to Carnarvon. I thought the fish was
bigger than my previous biggest Spanish Mackerel of 36 ¼ kg and might be up there with
some of the other record fish taken in recent years. Back in Carnarvon I was delighted to
see the scales swing past the existing I.B.S.R.C World Record by such a significant
margin. The length of the fish was 182cm and it had a girth of 82cm.
The speargun has an aluminium stock 48” or 1.2 metres long fitted with a Picasso
trigger, Rob Allen muzzle and spear shaft 7mm in diameter and 60” (1.7m) in length
with a single flopper. It is fitted with a single 19mm or ¾” diameter black surgical
rubber and 400 lb test monofilament spear line. The rig line is 4 mm in diameter braided
nylon 25 metres long connected to a plastic buoy 21” long and 17” in
circumference.
Greg Pickering
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Ian Brown
Previous World-record narrow-barred Spanish mackerel for
men—89.2 pounds (40.5 kilograms) Break Sea Shoals, Frazer Islands,
Queensland, Australia, Nov 20, 2003 by Ian Brown
For the past eight years, every October/November, I would travel to
Gladstone for my annual reef trip. This would involve 4 to 6 days on the Booby Bird--a
90-foot charter boat. Although the fishing was always goon on the Bunker Group reefs, felt
a change was needed this season.
As luck would have it, friends of mine purchased a new 7.2 meter walk-around Noosa
Cat, which opened the door to many new reefs. Due to its ability to handle most seas and
its long range ability. This season we decided to try the reefs south of the Bunker Group
and down to Frazer Island. These areas are renowned for many record fish in both line and
spearfishing worlds.
The first 20 miles were long and bruising. However, once again were soon made up
for lost time once we were past the coastal wind conditions. Reaching our first reef,
conditions were not too bad except for the visibility only being 10 meters. Despite this,
we did manage to bag several nice tuskies and a few small mangrove jack.
Twenty miles south and we were at our next destination. This reef is known as Sandy
Cape Shoals. The bottom is of a rocky coral formation with lots of gutters and overhangs.
Our first drift on the reef put us in the deeper side of the reef. The water was not clean
with only 10- 15-meters of visibility. We were expecting 30+ meters. Drifting along with
my buddy Danny, I could not help but wonder why the water was dirty and cold. There was
very little fish life on the bottom except for the occasional school of red bass. Quite
board, I started a dive to a small bommie in hope of jacks or trout. Once I was at about
15 meters, I realized there were no fish in the bommie. While drifting motionlessly of it,
I noticed a large shape approaching in the bottom. At first I was not sure if it was a
large yellowtail king or maybe a dogtooth tuna. As I drifted within range, I slowly aimed
and to my surprise, it was a large Spanish Mackerel.
As the fish slowly arched around me, I carefully fired.. My Rob Allen 1.3 gun
proved to have just the range...but only just. The 1.8 meter spear did not quite penetrate
the fish, although it was a good hold shot on a good angle centrally placed it its chest
cavity. Releasing my gun, I headed to the surface to notice Danny had watched the entire
event. As I broke surface, Danny's first words were, "What a massive fish, but I
think you are in the S..t now." And I looked down to see my 23 meter rig and Rob
Allen shaft disappear at about 15 meters below.
I did not think the fish knew he had been shot at first, but soon made up for it
with my float disappearing in a trail of bubbles. I quickly over-armed in the same
direction not sure if I was making ground or not. Lucky for me the boatie, Melissa quickly
tried to head the fish off by zigzagging in front of where she thought it was. This must
have done the trick as I could see my float 10 meters down but slowly floating to the
surface. I quickly dived down and grabbed my rig.
This must have excited the fish as it took off up current with me under tow. There
were so many thought going through my head at this stage like if I had a good shot or if
the fish would be eaten by sharks. The time passed and although it seemed like an
eternity, the whole chase was over in 15 minutes. Once I could see the fish, I realized it
did not need a second shot as the first one had done the job and had not moved.
Once I subdued the fish, I handed it to Paul in the boat. This is when I realized
just how large it was. Paul's comment was, "It is the largest Spanish I have ever
seen." Hearing that from his lips confirmed my belief as he had seen plenty of large
fish.
The next day, Peter and I took the fish to be weighed at a large fishing and tackle
shop. I was very impressed and wore a grin from ear to ear for the next few days. Special
thanks to Paul and Melissa and the rest of the crew for making this such a memorable
trip..
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Ian Fearnley
Previous world-record narrow-barred spanish mackerel for
men—87 pounds (39.5 kilograms) Murion Islands, Exmouth, Western
Australia, Jan 1, 2002 by Ian Fearnley
We had
complete two ordinary days of hunting in relatively dirty water with mediocre results,
considering the quality of the dive area. The area was North-East of Exmouth, Western
Australia and the weather conditions had not been favorable--18 to 25 knots of wind
Southeasterly blowing much of the time. Four of us had left Perth for the 1,300km drive on
the Friday night after work, looking forward to the 3-day exetended weekend's diving. We
had landed a number of Spanish mackerel up to 25kg with some nice Green Job fish to 9 kg,
Spangled Emperor and other species.
Our last day (Monday) proved no different weather wise, so we pounded our way out
to where we know Mackerel loved to run through a relatively shallow cut, usually with a
screaming current. The mackerel were slow so we fished for bottom fish, leaving one person
in the boat, allowing the other 3 to swim with current. The time was approaching when we
needed to start heading back and we all know about having to have one last dive just in
case!
I was in approximately 25 feet of water with a fairly fast current running and
dived to the bottom, which is very flat sponge country and allowed the current to drag me
across the bottom--nothing..
I pushed off the bottom with my gun and as I looked up, I caught movement at the
edge of my visibility, so I hung about 8 feet from the bottom and waited. Two mackerel
came in fairly quickly, the larger one at the rear and angling in slightly to catch up
with the first, which was cutting a large simi-circle around me. I waited to take the
shot.
The shaft hit slightly low, missing the spine, so it din not take too many seconds
for the 25m of line on my reel to disappear, turning me into a float being pulled along
the surface. It took 8 to 10 minutes for the mackerel to loose puff and another 5- to 10
minutes to get him to the surface where I could get my hinds into his gills. I was not
until now with my hands around his head that I realized how big he was. His size led to
some conjecture on the boat as to the weight, all of us underestimating by 3- to 5- hilos.
After weighing the fish on a uncertified scale in Exmouth, we gutted the fish and
cut off head so as to get it into the ice bos and bagged both the guts and head for
weighing in Perth on certified scales.
A very enjoyable day!
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Barry Paxman
Barry Paxman's previous world record Narrowbarred
spanish mackerel—37.2 kilograms (81.9 pounds), Muiron Islands, Australia, Sept.
29, 2001
On a recent trip to Exmouth in WA eight divers in two boats headed out
to the Muiron Islands. The wind was blowing at 30 knots from the southeast and the swell
was against the tide. We all thought the weather was going to be better than Perth. After
what seemed to be hours we reached the islands. The water was sloppy and dirty. After a
couple of dives without success we found an area that was more protected from the wind.
Each boat had three divers in the water with one person drifting in the boat, close to
those in the water. This was done because the currents were too strong to anchor up. Fresh
burly was used in the current to hopefully attract mackerel. It was not long before a nice
coral trout and a large mangrove jack were in the boat. After about an hour greg Pickering
shot a nice 29 kg Spanish. Scott & Lee each picked up a nice mackerel.
At the end of the day the visibility deteriorated to about five meters. I shot a barracuda
and sliced and diced it in the current to attract mackerel. I dived towards the bottom, a
mackerel approached from my right, I continued my glide to intersect with the fish. I knew
it was big and the shot was solid, near the pectoral in the spine. After a few short
bursts of speed and a couple of hundred meters I had the fish in my hands. You know when
you get your hands on the fish, how big it is.
Greg Pickering brought the boat close by and got in the water for some photos.
Unfortunately the water was too dirty to get good results. Back in Exmouth Greg weighed
the fish on his certified scales. This mackerel weighed in at a new record of 37.2kg. My
personal best.
As the wind was still blowing hard from the southeast on the following day we dived on the
west coast from Exmouth (we are not allowed to shoot coral trout, baldchin groper or any
type of cod here not much left to shoot!!). Anyway we got a couple of mackerel and I shot
a new WA record long nosed emperor of 8.8kg,beating my old record of two years at 8.25kg.
Exmouth was for me a great break from the harsh weather in Perth.
Arnold Piccolli held the previous state record mackerel for WA for the last nineteen years
at 36.5kg.
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Ryan Springall
The story of Ryan Springall's world record
Narrowbarred spanish mackerel—37.0 kilograms (81.5 pounds)
date speared: May 5, 2001
location: Mudjimba Island, Australia |
After a week of good weather and reports of plenty of fish, on
the 28th of May, 2001, I decided to give Tim Nelson a call to see if he was
interested in going diving. As usual, Tim was keen to come with me. We left the Mooloolaba
boat ramp at midday heading north up to Noosa with plans to fish our way back down the
coast. When we got in the water, we found excellent visibility, but there were no fish. We
then came back along the coast were we found some reef in deeper water about 22- to 25-
meters deep. Still no fish. It was getting late in the afternoon so we decided to have our
last dive around Mudjimba Islands because one of my friends shot a 24 kilo Spanish
mackerel there just a couple of days before. It was not looking good for any fish as
Mudjimba Island is only one kilometer from the coast and lots of divers and anglers
regularly go there.
As soon as we anchored, Tim headed straight out to deeper water. I
thought it would be best to stay in the shallow water as there was lots of bait fish
around. I swam towards a ledge and laid on the bottom. I could not see any fish so I
headed toward the surface . When I reached the surface, a school of gray mackerel appeared
behind me. I was going to shoot one of the grays, which were only about 5 kilos when a
Spanish mackerel glided in underneath the other fish. I dove down to the mackerel’s
level and looked in the opposite direction. The mackerel immediately turned around and
came straight back towards me and passed about 2 meters beneath me. I slowly lined up the
fish from above and pulled the trigger as it was swimming away. The fish immediately took
all 30 meters of my rig and I was there holding onto a float getting towed through the
water in the opposite direction from Tim and the boat.
Not knowing if the flopper had opened, I decided to let the float go.
At this stage, I realized that the fish was a bit bigger than I had originally thought..
After about 10 minutes of over-arming, I caught up with my float and saw the tiring fish
swimming in large circles about 15 meters below the surface. I took a few quick breaths
and dived down. I found that the spear had not gone all the way through the fish. In one
quick thrust, I pushed the spear all the way through and saw that the fish was finally
secure. I killed the fish with my knife and swam back to the boat. It was a bit of a
struggle to get the fish into the boat. After admiring the fish, I pulled anchor and
headed to pick up Tim who already had two Spanish mackerel about 15 kilos each.We took a
couple of photos and headed in because it was too dark to dive.
I
weighed the fish on my scales at 37.6 kilos, however these scales were not certified so I
had to wait until the next day when I went down to the local game fishing club. There the
fish weighed 37 kilos on their certified scale. I shot the fish with a 1.2-meter Rob Allen
rail gun and my float was a 7-liter Rob Allen float.
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Kevin Daly
The story of Kevin Daly's world record Narrowbarred
spanish mackerel—36.8 kilograms (81.05 pounds)
date speared: July 3, 2000
location: Hibberdene, Natal South Coast, South Africa
The following took place during the annual Natal sardine run which is a phenomenon
which occurs during June/July of each year. During this time, huge shoals of sardines
congregate off the Transkei coast of South Africa and migrate northwards up the natal
coast towards Durban. These sardine shoals are followed by masses of dolphins, gamefish
and of course sharks which can make for some exciting diving if conditions are right. The
gamefish put on an enormous amount of weight during this period.
On 3rd of July 2000, John Little and myself drove down to Hibberdene on the Natal South
coast. The water looked clean so we swam out. Visibility was about 6m but the water was a
bit cold. We first swam out to a couple of spots that I know in about 40ft which normally
have a few reef fish. There was however nothing around in the cold water and even the
usual old woman were absent. We then started swimming northwards up current to a pinnacle
that John knows. On the way, I did a few downs to see if I couldn’t pick up a fish or
two on the way. On one of these down, I lay on the bottom for a short while to see if
anything would come in to me. I wasn’t near any good structure on the reef and there
was no fish so I started swimming for the surface. A meter or two off the bottom, I
stopped to check around for cuda (common name for Scomberomorus Commerson in South Africa)
as we had seen one and shot one the week before so we knew that the big cuda were around.
As I turned, I saw a huge cuda gliding in behind my back. I quickly brought my gun around
and managed to place a shot high up in between the anal and dorsal fins as it was swimming
away.
The fish took off very fast and I quickly grabbed my float as it went past. I hung on
and it towed my with such a speed that my mask almost got washed off my face so I had to
hold onto it with my other hand. My car keys were also attached to my float which was even
more reason to hang on tight to my float. The fish made one very fast initial run which
must have towed me a couple of hundred meters. It must have spent almost all its energy in
that initial run as it swam very slowly in a big circle for a few minutes after that. It
then made one more final run which was much slower than the first. After this the fish was
almost dead and I easily got my hand in its gills and killed it with my knife. I strung
the fish on my float and by this stage, John had swam up to me. Neither of us could
believe the size of it and how fat it was.
We stayed in the water and eventually found the pinnacle we were looking for. We each
got a geelbeck (similar to American white sea bass) and a few other reefies as well as our
quota of crayfish. I then decided to swim in as I was worried about sharks damaging my
fish and was also battling to swim against the current.
The fish attracted quite a crowd on the beach and carrying it to the car was quite an
exercise in itself. John and I drove back to Durban to get the fish weighed on a certified
scale. It weighed in at 36.8 kg.
-------Equipment used was a Rob Allen rail gun with a 1.3m long barrel and a 1.7m long
7mm thick spear powered by a single 20mm thick rubber band. The float used was an
approximately 10 litre foam filled float.
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Cameron Kirkconnell
Notable Catch, weight unavailable, diver estimates over 100 pounds...
Alberts Sunrise Resort in Kadavu, Fiji is a 2 hour ride in an open
boat from the closest semblance of any civilization or electricity. It is this remoteness and the stories of giant fish
that drew us to this area and it would not disappoint.
We had already made our morning dive and were waiting for the fourth
member of our team to arrive only to discover that he had been hijacked at the airport by
one of the other resorts at the opposite end of the island and wasn’t going to make
it for at least another day. Because of this
we now had only an hour left of light and our
final trip of the day would have to be cut short. We
arrived at the outer reef and entered the water and within a short time I found an area
that was by far the best we had seen the entire trip.
“This is where we’re going to get the fish of the trip!” I
exclaimed to Brad and Robbie who dove the spot with me for a half hour before giving up
and heading back in to the shallower water to shoot some reef fish for dinner. Beginning to lose hope myself, I made a final dive
to the top of the drop off and lay on the bottom at 50 feet, nearing the end of my dive I
looked at my watch and at the same time noticed a movement above me and looked up to my
horror to see a gigantic mackerel that had already swam past and above me and out of
range. I pushed off the bottom and swam as
hard as I could straight for the fish’s tail and closed the distance to 25, 20, and
finally 16 feet and pulled the trigger on my Rabitech 140 cm Apex. The fish was facing directly away from me and I
could see the shaft enter the lower part of abdomen on the left side but could not tell
the depth of the penetration. Reaching the
surface the buoy screamed past me and I was only able to get a quick breath before
grabbing it and swimming with it to 50 feet again before letting it go to keep from
passing out. Looking down again into the depth
I see the buoy has stopped and is approaching the surface again and I know that the shaft
has pulled out of the soft flesh of his stomach or one of the ever present sharks has
taken him. Grabbing the buoy I am devastated
until I realize that there is movement on the other end.
I yell at Robbie and Brad to give chase and we follow the fish into hundreds
of feet of water and despite the 80ft of visibility it is now so dark that we cannot see
the fish at the end of the 75 ft of ¼ inch polypropylene float line coupled with a 1
meter Rob Allen Bungie.
Over the next 10 minutes I gingerly fight the fish up to where we can
see him and Robbie tries to make a dive down to see how the shot is placed. We watch as he returns to the surface a t high
speed and says, “It is F-in dark as hell down there,
but that thing is monstrous!!!”
A few minutes later Brad dives down to 45 feet and can see the single
flopper shaft toggled coming out just behind the right pectoral fin. Knowing that the fish is hit well I take Brads 130
Rabitech Apex, cock it and bring the fish to within 20 feet of the surface before diving
down excitedly and putting a second shaft through the fishes head.
On the surface I try to regain my breath and overcome my excitement
as I haul the fish in as fast as I can and get him in my hands and wrap my legs around him
in a death grip that I would not have let go if Jaws had tried to take him from me. I send the knife through his head and we all start
yelling and hooting and hollering while at the same time looking around us expecting at
any second for a giant shark or school of oceanic whitetips to show up and tear us up.
We’re all laughing nervously as we take some quick pictures in
the water and then clamber in to the boat and truly realize how big the fish is. We are all convinced that it is well over a hundred
pounds as we can barely lift it and it is much larger than our host who stands 5’3
and is a 105 lbs.
We run the boat across the reef and back in to the beach trying to
figure out how we are ever going to get it weighed. We
deduce that it will be at a minimum 2 days before we can get to the main island of Fiji if
they even let me bring the beast of a fish on the plane.
We have no ice and no electricity so we take measurements of the fish and
divide him up amongst the village who has treated us like family for the duration of our
stay. That night we drank warm
Fiji Bitters and many cups of Kava and replayed the fight over and over again.
The fish measured 63.5 inches long and had a girth of 36 inches. I measured the girth at his pectoral fins as well
as his anal and dorsal fins and they were the same. The
gun I used is a 140 cm long and can be seen clearly in the picture beside the fish as he
bends in my arms. I am 6’3 and weigh 195
lbs. My waist is 36 inches and you can see
that with the fish laying against me he is wider than my torso. Our host Maureen Riggs is 5’3” 105
lbs and I am holding the fish beside her for perspective..
The documentation has been signed by Brad Thornbrough on the original
and because the two of us left Fiji and returned to the States and Robbie went to Australia
before we could obtain the record forms. The
boat driver was a native Fijian by the name of Tu-la-la.
A quiet guy with a heart of gold who thought we were crazy as hell for
getting back in the water each day after seeing hundreds of sharks while we were there. The boat we were on is a single outboard powered
open boat owned by the resort and I do not believe they even have a name for it or believe
that I could pronounce it anyways.
Of all the fish I have shot over the years this is one of the most
spectacular and unforgettable. This fish was
undoubtedly exceptional and I am so happy to have had the opportunity to travel and even
have the chance to be in these amazing waters and encounter this gigantic fish. I look forward to hearing back from you after
reviewing the submission and hope that this fish is as well received as possible taking
into account the remoteness of the locale and the uniqueness of the situation.
Cameron Kirkconnell
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