Women's World Record Striped Marlin ,Colleen Gallagher

I pasted this from the IBSRC

The date is July 15,2010. I was diving with my two friends, Matt Davidson of Blue Tuna Spearfishing and Max Mirinov, a fellow spearfisherman and photographer. We were on the dive boat, Pez Sapo with our Captain Nono. We were diving at Ceralvo Island, Baja Mexico. We were with Palapas Ventana Dive resort in La Ventana Mexico. The time was shortly after noon, the weather was sunny and calm, 100 degrees temp outside and the water temp was a warm 79 degrees.
Matt and Max and I had made repetitive dives for Wahoo, but even with multiple sightings, they stayed just out of reach. We were all using Andre 144, 3 band spearguns, 57". My Andre Euro144 was connected to a breakaway to a 75 foot Riffe float line that was clipped to a Rob Allen 11 litre hard float. We were all using flashers, tossing them out in front of ourselves by about 10 ft and allowing them to slowly drift down to 20 ft, flickering off the sunlight as they descended, then we would dive down to retrieve them.
On this particular dive, this was my last day of diving and the guys were frustrated so they got back in the boat. I made another dive and I was only 20 ft from the boat. Right then, as I was just maybe 10 feet below the surface,just at 15 feet in came the largest pelagic I had ever seen, a Striped Marlin. My Andre 144 was comfortably poised in my arm to shoot, and I was amazed at how close it was, no more than 10-15 feet from the tip of my gun. I placed a perfect downward shot right at the spine just behind the gill plate. The slip tip buried deep into the meat of the spine, never toggled out of the body and the Marlin initially was stunned. It was long enough time for Matt and Max who were looking over the edge of the boat at all the commotion, to have the clear conscious to recognize the enormity of it all and toss me a second Riffe float with a bungee and I clipped it onto the back of my Rob Allen float, then Max passed me an unloaded Andre 144 mid handle 3 band speargun with 50 ft float line that I clipped to the Riffe float.
These two men kept the boat right next to me and kept me focused on what I had to do. This was my Marlin, and they knew I had to do this on my own. The Marlin rallied and pulled the first buoy down as it dragged me forward in the water. The Marlin never turned or jumped or made any attempt at me, just propelled itself forward till it finally started to tire. I moved from the back of the Riffe float, pulled myself and my 2nd speargun that was clipped to the Riffe float forward to the first buoy, the Rob Allen which was now back on the surface. I clipped it to the Rob Allen, and now started to pull in this enormous fish.
I closed the gap between myself and the Marlin, and clipping the float line off, bringing it in little by little. When it was just 20 ft below me, I looked down at this enormous animal and yelled to Matt, " I can't do this" He yelled back, "Yes you can and go do it!"
I loaded the Andre 144 mid handle, took a breath and dove down next to the Marlin and placed a second shot right at the gills, the blood started to pour out and as I ascended to the surface, it now had two shafts in it and it was twitching. I yelled to Matt to give me a third gun, and he passed me an unloaded 144 Euro Andre 3 band gun with a 50 ft float line, that I quickly loaded and then I took a breathe, made a short descent to a little over 20 ft down into the ocean,and placed the third shot in the head of the Marlin. It was over, it was motionless.
I then pulled the Marlin up to the surface, all by myself, getting tangled and untangled in the three float lines, two buoys and presented the 126lb marlin to the Boat Captain with three shafts pierced in its body.
It was an incredible experience for me.
I brought the Marlin by boat onto the beach at Palapas Ventana and it weighed in on a certified IUSA scale at 126 lbs and 109" in length.

That must be an amazing experience.

Wow

TTIWWOP.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwA8ib0YcTA

Cheers, Don