• So today my heart dropped when I spotted a large cubera inside a wreck. Even though my buddy said he saw a big snapper tail inside the wreck, I was so surprised to see it that I missed a fleeting opportunity to shoot it. Jon retrieved a flashlight from the boat while I anxiously breathed up for another drop. On my second dive I went in the same hole and checked the same corridor but didn't see him. I waited a few seconds scanning with the light... As I turned to leave I saw his head peering out of another hole just feet away with his eyes locked on me. As I was turning I extended the gun into the hole aimed for a stone shot and fired point blank into his head. I thought for sure it would incapacitate him but I was wrong. He went ape shit and before I could blink I was dodging a thrashing shaft in tight quarters. I went to the surface and tried to calm down but the excitement was too much. Minutes passed before I dove again to find my shaft sticking out of the hole with no fish... The tip of the tri cut 7.5 mm shaft was rolled over as if I shot into a rock and a single quarter sized scale was resting on the flopper. The gun I was using was a riffe euro 130 with two shortened 16mm bands. Is that really not enough for a big cubera? I know we can't win them all but damn.

    Promontorium Tremendum

  • You must of hit just the wrong spot on the head at just the wrong angle. Cuberas are notorious for bouncing shafts but I can't believe a 130 w short bands wouldn't do it though.


    Sorry for your loss.
    RIP to that opportunity

    Scupper Pro Gives You Wings!

  • I've taken big grouper with this gun using a lighter setup, and I'll continue to run it like it is now but like you I just can't believe it only penetrated 3 inches. What a beast of an animal...

    Promontorium Tremendum

  • Good story. Since it was lost I hope the fish makes it.


    Possibly you shot high and went right through him and the tip hit something behind the fish causing it to bend. I don't think there's anything in a fish that will bend a tip like that. I think your gun is enough for even the largest cubera at such close quarters.

  • Are you using a reel? Or did you free shaft and almost go through the fish?


    If you had a reel and a flopper shaft, like Dan suggested, your shaft probably came out and hit something hard under the fish. It didn't go through far enough for the flopper to open and he slipped off?


    You'll lie awake many a night thinking about this….:confused2::confused2:

  • I seen my buddy (Bequia Blues on this forum) have his euro 130 shaft bounce off a big cubera at medium range, those scales are armor plated! But what the guys above said are all plausible scenarios.

    A bad day at sea is better than a good day in the boatyard
    George Steele

  • Yeah I'm using a reel. I'm sure of my aim because I was so close but maybe the flopper failed to open and he slipped off? When I retrieved the shaft, the flopper was closed with the scale touching the hinge. I didn't try to open the flopper before removing the scale (which was surprisingly difficult to pull off) so I can't say if it would have failed to open on the other side of the fish. I can say it was properly tuned before the shot and had no dense meat or tissue on it after. I'm also not sure of the distance between the fish and the hull of the wreck... When I fired the shaft stoped abruptly before whizzing back and forth infront of my face. My immediate interpretation was it just didn't go through. I let go of my gun to control the shaft and realizing I was in a mess of double wrap and big fish I cautiously backed out. My gun floated to the ceiling and once out of the hole I reached back and gave it two good pulls but no bueno so I surfaced leaving it in the hallway. Maybe the fish was against the hull? It was a tiny hole and I was using a flashlight so it's possible I wouldn't have noticed. I'll ask my buddy if he heard what could have been the sound of the shaft hitting the hull. That could be a plausible explanation and explain the damage to the tip of the shaft.

    Promontorium Tremendum

  • I've never shot a cubera larger than maybe 20 lbs through the head so maybe it could bounce off. But that wouldn't have screwed up the tip of the shaft…..I don't think anyway. The fish may be hard headed as my Honduran wife :D, but I don't think it could bend a steel tip like that.

  • A lost big fish will keep you running it through your head for nights, but it sounds like the tip smacked the hull stopping the flooper from clearing the other side and opening as the others have said. Unless you hit the spine or brain I bet she will heal even with a hole.


    Cheers, Don

    "Great mother ocean brought forth all life, it is my eternal home'' Don Berry from Blue Water Hunters.


    Spearfishing Store the freediving and spearfishing equipment specialists.

    Edited once, last by Don Paul ().

  • I bet that fish will be in your head for quite a while even in your sleep :laughing3: You should have gotten a Denton ;)


    That is the beauty of diving. There is always another day for another chance!

  • interesting report!

    Quote

    single quarter sized scale was resting on the flopper.


    did my first steps (Cuba) with cubera by using this kind of setup (euro 120 +7,5mm sahft) and lost about fiftee per cent of targeted fish ...
    So I early changed by using mini ice pick spear tips style
    hunting cubera in a wreck needs most of the time a killshot because then frustration is on the spearo side!;)

  • I have a healthy respect for those fish now bc of my experience. That was the first cubera I've ever seen so to lose such a fish really sucks. If they were common in the areas I dive I would be setup for worst case scenario but I have a feeling that if I bump into another one im gonna be carrying a similar setup 120-130 rail gun with flopper shaft... Very cool picture Virgili!

  • I have a healthy respect for those fish now bc of my experience. That was the first cubera I've ever seen so to lose such a fish really sucks. If they were common in the areas I dive I would be setup for worst case scenario but I have a feeling that if I bump into another one im gonna be carrying a similar setup 120-130 rail gun with flopper shaft... Very cool picture Virgili!


    Maybe that scale was pinning your flopper to the shaft so it didn't open?

  • Despite our instinct to shoot every fish in the head, I'm positively sure that that's not the best choice when we're hunting cuberas. Their skull is too hard and so their scales.


    A shot in the gill plate will hold well and one in the mid body too.


    I have evidences... :(


    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeQ5ooVvfdc


    That big guy was more than 60 pounds for sure and the shot placement was "perfect". :rolleyes1:

    Marco Melis

    A bad day fishing is ALWAYS better than a good day at work.

  • you know El Marco thats the first time I am watching the vid and notice how blunt your spear tip was.... Still feel your heart break buddy.
    But if we are doing a heartbreak vid I can put up mine as well!! Mine is bigger than yours! Ok Ok my own is a giant yellowfin but still :rolleyes1: :laughing:
    You just never get over that "one" :(

    A bad day at sea is better than a good day in the boatyard
    George Steele

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