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Beirut, November 13, 2000 Day after tomorrow it will be one month since I've been in Beirut, Lebanon. Almost every year I spend part of the fall season in Lebanon's Mediterranean waters. That's when the fish migration is at its peak and the sea is most productive. But this year, the surface water temperature has been unusually warm. Between October 15 and November 12th, water temp at the surface has dropped from 78 F to 74.5 F only. That’s bad news for blue fin tuna hunting. If they pass, they would stay way below the surface and only a few lucky anglers have managed to catch a couple of small ones. No feeding schools have been spotted yet. There go all my efforts to get a large tuna :-( ... I went through so much trouble bringing my blue water gun; float board and bungee line to Lebanon. So far, I haven't had a chance to use them. But there is another specie I am after. The giant Pacific Spanish Mackerel (also called Narrow Barred Spanish Mackerel == Latin: Scomberomorus Commerson) . Last year in November I had posted the list that I shot and almost landed one I estimated at over 60 lb. I had also partially heard and seen another one I estimated at 200 lb +! I had no idea then this fish could grow that big.
Two weeks ago, I heard news that commercial fishermen had started catching a few ones. So I rigged up a 110 cm Picasso Carbono speargun with 5 lengths of shooting line and 130 ft of Spectra Core 2mm Ø reel line. But since groupers, dentex and other fish are around, I kept diving with my good old single band Hunter 90 and 6.5 mm Ø Tahitian spear, while keeping the longer gun on the boat or attached to my float. I've been diving almost every day, all day, since more than 3 weeks. I landed lots of groupers, sargos, dentex and jacks. Biggest grouper I got was a 9.6 kilo Dusky Grouper (21 lb). Most importantly, I lost 10 lb of weight myself. Office work is definitely not for me. If I don't workout, dive, bike, hike or stay active all day, I’d gain weight no matter what and how I eat.
On Sunday November 5, I was on my friend's 45 ft boat. Christian is the Mares and Suunto exclusive distributor in Lebanon. He had asked me to teach a group of 6 people how to freedive and spearfish. I was training a young woman, so I ducked down to 35 ft for her to watch and follow me. As I was lying on my back waiting for her to descend, I sensed a passing shadow, so I turned my head and saw a huge giant Spanish Mackerel passing slowly over my head, but too far to my right. As I ascended, I called Nadeem, my dive buddy who was training another student, and told him about it, saying I estimated the fish to be between 20 and 25 kilos (44 to 55 lb). It still was no more than half the size of the one I had seen 3 days earlier at that same spot. It had kept me in the area all afternoon hoping to cross it another time. That night I could see it swim out of reach, each time I tried to close my eyes. I asked my student to give me a few minutes break, so I could try my luck.
For
the next hour, Nadeem and I were diving down and swimming up in 40
ft of water at exactly the same spot, lying still on a sand bed between
two rocks, for between 1m30 and 2 minutes each time. I had my
Picasso Century 90cm, single 20 mm bands and 140 cm Tahitian Spear. I
couldn't get my longer gun which was on Christian’s boat
that had to leave back to the marina, as one of the divers had
gotten seriously seasick. But in any case, I was confident I had enough
power to land that fish with my all around "peashooter".
My student Rania stayed on the surface observing me as I had asked her to. She is an avid sportswoman and I wasn't worried she would get tired. But now that Nadeem and his student were back on the boat, I felt I'd better stop before Rania got bored all alone. I thought to myself that we would end the dive as soon as Nadeem comes back with the boat. That would give me a few more apneas. Before I ducked down for the last time, I looked and saw the boat coming towards us. I relaxed all my muscles as I glided motionless and reached the bottom. I was playing new age music in my head, to make the apnea last longer more comfortably and I kept resisting the impulse to frequently turn my head, because I wanted the dive to be as motionless and silent as possible.
After the first contractions, I was swimming back up when it appeared in the blue out of nowhere right and turned its side about 25 ft to my right. I didn't have to avoid eye contact, because I was wearing my Sombra Hunting mask. Knowing I only had a few seconds to play, I just swam diagonally towards its path and we both kept the slow and unhurried speed. I could see it staring at my face, but I had no other choice but continue swimming, since I was now moving on adrenalin alone. I kicked faster for a second, risking scaring it off. Having seen its behaviour on more than one occasion, I knew the fish would give no warning before fleeing; a sudden triple full body motion with the classical rapid "Bap Bap Bap" explosive sound and it's gone way out of range. But not this time though. I had the fishing angel looking over me. I extended my arm slowly, pointing my gun and realized the spear was less than 5 ft away from the fish. I pulled the trigger and shot straight towards the surface for precious air, as I saw Rania hovering in mid-water above my head, observing the whole scene.
During
the next 20 to 25 minutes, I played the fish. It was hit it in the
heart area, below the spine and the gill plate and I felt it was
loosing strength rather slowly. After a few minutes, I borrowed
Rania's small 75 cm gun and dove down, but it was an impossible task
with my left hand holding the line, to get a clear kill shot at battling
fish. So I patiently played it to exhaustion, which saved my spear from
bending.
17.75
kilos (39.13 lb), 132 cm long (51.97 inches) and 68 cm girth
circumference (26.77 inches). It was skinny with a completely empty
stomach. I guess it's due to the fact the migration through the Suez
Canal had just finished and they were at the end of their journey.
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