Competition is Fierce Between Twins & Biggest Fish Ever On My Boat {The Waterman Games Pt 6}

1 year ago
193

We decided to head back in Key West to go after the points that we needed with the other fish species for the Florida Spearfishing Tournament freediving spearfishing game.

We took off deep into the Gulf of Mexico. We were 100 miles from where we set out of Key West that morning and it took us nearly 3 hours to get there.

Dylan was the first one to enter the water. I hear Christine yell to me something about a big cobia.

I started swimming in the direction of Dylan which was a good distance away.

“It’s a big one”, he says. “I need a second shot!” Damn! I swam as fast as I could over to him, and was now out of breath.

I took my third deep breath, pulled the snorkel out of my mouth, pinched my nose to equalize my ears and made my dive down.

At the surface, the water is blue and somewhat clear, but as I descend down for the first time in the area, I quickly become surrounded by green, silty, very poor visibility.

I was basically diving in the darkness and guiding myself down by the line that was attached to the fish.

I started pumping down deeper but I hung on to the line so the fish was pulling me down to the depths.

Finally, the fish appears out of the darkness.

Using hand-over-hand, grabbing the line, I pulled myself closer to the fish so that I could stop kicking and conserve energy.

I was at the end of my limits on my breath hold. I lined up and fired, hitting the fish right behind the gills.

We quickly got the fish to the surface, and the size was absolutely amazing. The biggest cobia I’d ever seen.

It will be one of the most memorable fishing experiences we’ve had, but there’s only one major problem: It wasn’t a fish I could claim for the Florida Spearfishing Tournament.

That cobia was 30 feet down when Dylan put his shot in. It was very much still alive and thrashing as it bolted down to 80 feet, where I placed a critical second shot on it to secure it from ripping off.

One of the fish Christine needed to harvest was a hogfish. So we decided to drive down to a spot where I know there’s a bunch of them.

Christine and Victoria are a couple hundred yards away from us, and for some reason got separated from each other.

Victoria drops down and two cobia swim up and she fires. The fish takes off into the structure and gets stuck.

She makes her way back to the surface, and there is no one to be found.

She’s calling my name, but we’re still battling a bullshark over that black grouper, and didn’t hear her.

She finally catches the attention of Christine.

Christine dives down and pulls the fish out of the wreck and swims towards the surface.

Just as Victoria’s pulling the fish up, six goliath grouper are coming in hot; wanting to steal her fish to take it towards the bottom.

Victoria dives down and tries to poke one of the goliaths with her spear. The goliath bit off more than it could chew and heads down to the bottom.

After a long tug-of-war, Christine finally manages to pull up the cobia from the Goliath’s mouth and towards the surface.

The goliath had enough, and the girls secured their fish. Victoria now had her cobia for the game. And she wouldn’t have landed it without the help of Christine.

Victoria already had a hogfish for the game, so I figured she would help Christine find one. Especially after Christine just helped her with a cobia.

We pulled up and I was expecting to see Christine holding a hogfish - but it was Victoria.

They were taking turns diving, and on one of Victoria’s dives, a beautiful hogfish swims up and she decided to take the shot, preventing any chances of her sister getting that hogfish.

Not only at the last moment of the day, but the last moment of the season.

Christine was visibly upset, as I knew she would be once I found out it was Victoria who shot the fish.

But Christine was in the lead over Victoria by around 4 fish and this would be one less point she had to worry about.

This made Christine mad. Especially since she helped her sister land that cobia just hours before.

There was tension on the boat the rest of the evening. This is one downfall of the game - that it does create tension among friends that would otherwise not be there.

And Christine was still sitting in first place, so she was able to take the loss without holding a grudge for too long towards her sister.

Join this channel to get access to perks:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVdKKm_ldiWrDZlv80Snx3A/join

There are 6 films so far in The Waterman Games Series
Pt. 1: https://youtu.be/FE__XB6zK14
Pt. 2: https://youtu.be/dGfrR05eKJw
Pt. 3: https://youtu.be/wtYEwKrBaSo
Pt. 4: https://youtu.be/f8zdshZAx9M
Pt. 5: https://youtu.be/rtwVqM2OVt8
Pt. 6: https://youtu.be/ZfUEqvdyXaA (You are here!)

Freediving Spearfishing Key West Cobia Hogfish Florida Boating The Fisher Twins

Loading comments...