Lost THE grouper

  • So for the past few years to celebrate my birthday in style I've been going on trips to do some fishing and diving. This year we rented a boat out of Key West and spent two days in the Marquesas looking to get into some less-pressured areas. We got out there and it turned out to be more difficult to find fish than expected due to the vis, current, and lack of a properly functioning depth finder :frustrated1:


    Anyways we towed around areas that looked good on the chart and were able to find some good structure eventually. One such place was awesome with a few coral heads that had reef in-between with cracks and short ledges. Spotted at least 6 grouper just hanging around initially. Signaled to my buddy about 50 feet away to come over to where I was at. As he was swimming he must've spooked the monster of a black grouper that ended up holing up in the coral head underneath right where I was. "Holy *#$% there he is...don't panic" was all I could think. We were only in 30' of water and this guy hadn't left the hole. I took some deep breaths, cleared my head and made my descent to check on him. Got down there, looked in a small crack at the bottom of the head and just saw his head up to his gill plate. He was just sitting there, feeling real secure-like. Went back up to the surface and had to regain my composure before diving again. Got down there a second time to check again and see how I could angle my pole spear to get a good shot into him. Figured it out but ran out of air and headed back up. My adrenaline began to get to me, knowing that this next dive it was going to be on with the trophy grouper I had been looking for. Headed down for the third time, and got my polespear into position. A Gatku 9-footer with a slip-tip that I had to bend under the coral head and over a small hill of sand to aim at him. I lined up right at his skull and let it fly. Nothing happened. "There was no way I missed, hopefully I stoned him." Wishful thinking. I pulled on the spear and all hell broke loose. I gave a slightly stronger pull as he made the polespear rattle in his full blown rage. Thinking that I should let him tire out a little I decided not to pull harder and headed to the surface. Connected to the spear was a short bungie and a 70 ft floatline attached to a homemade buoy. Looking back down I could see the spear rattling around, almost halfway into the coral. I wanted to put some pressure on him so I grabbed the line and tugged a little. To my utter disbelief, the spear gently slipped out of the coral. The tip was gone, all that remained was a long piece of spectra with some bloodstains on it. "Ok now you really need to not panic." It was the most gut-wrenching feeling but I kept some hope as he was definitely still in there. My buddy stayed over the spot while I went to get my other tip from the boat. Got back about a minute later and swapped them out. He dove down to check on the fish while I regained my breath from the swim to the boat. I saw him jump a foot when he peeked in the coral and thought that was odd. Turned out that a big moray decided to scare him. Turned out to be the most aggressive moray ever. Each time we checked a different hole in the coral he would pop out of it and scare us half to death. After an hour of trying to work around him we gave it up. There was no way around the moray. We even debated freeshafting it but neither of us had seen the grouper anyways when we did get the chance to look. No point in killing the eel too.


    The thought of losing that fish is going to haunt me for years. Don't know if the knot securing the tip let go or if it frayed off in the coral but I was not too happy. Wasn't sure if I was asking too much of it with that big off a fish. Icing on the cake came later when I hit a second, much smaller black that took off into a crack, I pulled straight back on the spear and out it came with no fish, no spectra and no tip. What the hell was that about? I can understand (barely) that it didn't hold the big black :weeping:, but why did the system fail on the smaller one? Maybe it had some damage that I didn't see from some earlier trip. It had only taken a couple fish before but the first tip was brand spanking new (I decided to just buy a new one instead of sharpening my own tri-cut)


    Anyways, it was a very bittersweet birthday for myself. I got my ass handed to me by a beast but also saw some awesome things, swam with a huge pod of dolphins in bluewater, and most importantly spent two days on the water with friends doing what I love. But damn I really wish I got that one grouper. Now I just hope he survived the whole ordeal so I can get him next time.


  • The tip was gone, all that remained was a long piece of spectra with some bloodstains on it.


    You got the spectra line so it held on the base.


    If it came off the slip tip head from a knot failure then it would be original length, if shorter then line snapped or got cut on structure there.


    Most people buy my spectra slip tips for poles. The cost to replace is low and easy DIY deal.


    Others only want Stainless cable PERIOD, probably from same experience like what you had.


    Another option is Kevlar line. This material is much better on coral and sharp rocks than spectra.


    With any rigging, it all needs to be checked before hand.

  • Bittersweet indeed. Morays can be so tenacious. The largest black grouper I ever shot was almost lost to a very thick green moray. It locked it's body in the reef and mouth in and around the gills of the grouper. Even after being stuck hard with the albeit blunt end of my gun in didn't even flinch. It wound up following the grouper all the way up from 80 feet before letting go just 10 feet from the surface and hung around half a minute after I had the fish in my hands.


    Sorry for your loss, very frustrating. Always heard the marquesas are beautiful and bountiful place to dive.

    Scupper Pro Gives You Wings!

  • Great story. So if the moray was out of the way you couldn't have checked better? Why not poke it?


    Why were you not using a speargun?


    We tried everything from distracting it to shoving the spear down its throat. SOB just wouldn't give up. I did get a few good looks from different angles when my buddy distracted the eel and didn't see the fish. Figured he got real high and tight to the coral head at some crazy place. Would've stuck my hand in to feel around but yea...


    As far as not using a speargun, my buddy was using his gun but we weren't able to angle it to get a shot on the fish. I had to bend the shaft of the gatku just to get the spear into the hole pointed at him

    Brad

  • Bittersweet indeed. Morays can be so tenacious. The largest black grouper I ever shot was almost lost to a very thick green moray. It locked it's body in the reef and mouth in and around the gills of the grouper. Even after being stuck hard with the albeit blunt end of my gun in didn't even flinch. It wound up following the grouper all the way up from 80 feet before letting go just 10 feet from the surface and hung around half a minute after I had the fish in my hands.


    Sorry for your loss, very frustrating. Always heard the marquesas are beautiful and bountiful place to dive.


    Damn! Yea he was all business. Haven't really seen that from a moray before usually just see them fairly docile. He took a couple pokes from the business end of the gun no problem. The Marquesas were awesome and definitely have a lot of great fish. For us the vis was shit though except on the outer reef where the current was just ripping. Had to pick the lesser of two evils. It was a good time nonetheless and definitely want to go back someday

    Brad


  • The first slip tip on the big fish was either cut off very close to the tip or the knot slipped. I'm thinking the latter because the spectra was slightly pigtailed after coming out of the coral but I can't say for 100%. It looks like the entire original length though. The second tip just completely disappeared spectra and all so either the bottom knot failed or the spectra snapped close to the base and both pieces of remaining spectra stayed in the coral. :crazy:


    Either way I'm rethinking my slip tip setup. I like sliptips a lot since they don't put as much stress on the spear for rocked up fish, but there's a tradeoff in not being able to control the fish as well and risking being cut off/knots slipping on coral :frustrated1: Either way I'd rather lose a tip than snap the front end of my spear completely I don't know lol


    That kevlar line sounds like a good option where could I look to get some?

    Brad

  • That's a new one for me, in the encyclopaedia it goes.


    I didn't even think about it at the time. It was just the only way to put a quality shot in him. The composite end of the gatku is really flexible and quite strong so it took it no problem.

    Brad

  • That kevlar line sounds like a good option where could I look to get some?


    I got my kevlar from Josh @ Neptonics years ago. It is a yellowish color, I don't think he sells it anymore.


    I use an open ended razor blade to cut the spectra and kevlar, with the kevlar my blade is trashed after a couple of length cuts.


    Let me look for supplier, Dan didn't have it listed, I checked there 1st. ;)


    --------------------------------------------


    EDIT Jon at Spearit has some options. I actually bought some of the 3mm and forgot. You might need to drill a larger hole in the head for this stuff. if you need a required hole size for the 3mm let me know, I can test. Don't recall. It seemed larger than 3mm but going off of a bad memory, I forgot I even had it.


    http://www.spearitco.com/3mm-Kevlar-p/line-ke30-xxxx.htm


    http://www.spearitco.com/1-7mm…line-p/line-ke17-xxxx.htm

    Edited 2 times, last by Linghunt: add links to kevlar ().

  • I got mine on amazon through spearit I believe. I stopped using the Kevlar because you can't splice or bury it due to it having a inner core. If you are happy tieing knots then it's very abrasive resistant and strong as all hell.

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


  • Awesome. Thanks a lot man I'll try it out

    Brad

  • I would avoid Kevlar. It is extremely UV sensitive and degrades pretty quick in sunlight. You won't be able to see it though. It is also self abrading. A lot of the applications for kevlar rope are one and done. Fireman sometimes use it for escape ladders but it gets tossed after one use. For a soft connection spectra is the better choice. It is stronger for the same diameter and though you may loose some abrasion resistance it's not much. Better than either of them for reef hunting is stainless cable. Reef is sharp and will cut any of the fiber options. SS will hold up much better however you will sacrifice some tensile strength. The spectra is great for blue water species with soft flesh. The SS has a tendency to "saw" through.


    It's easy to second guess yourself trying to find the perfect setup. I am certainly guilty of this. In the end, fish will break gear. The best you can do is check your gear often and replace wear parts regularly. In the end the fish will probably live. Theres a great thread on here that shows the ability of fish to recover. It takes a lot to slow down some of these big fish.

  • Wishihadgills is right on... :thumbsup2:


    Didn't know about UV effects on Kevlar. Effect vs time exposed would be my question.


    There are pros and cons of all 3 options, Changing the rigging often seems be correct approach. When in doubt replace it, same deal with mono on a fishing reel.


    If I catch a good sized fish on a monoline, I tend to cut and replace the knots. Losing a fish to a faulty knot not a good feeling.


    With SS cable that leads back to proper crimping. That another aspect to consider.

  • I'm gonna make the switch to the cable headhunter tip on the gatku with the adapter. I've just had to many fish slip off the gatku one anyways. Probably gonna sell one or both of the gatku injector rods. Just have to figure out for how much

    Brad

  • In my experience with grouper (only one invasive spp. in HI) they are living Ass h&les..ahem...Anchors.
    I wonder if a flopper tip would have been a better choice?? I can see the upside to a slip tip (fish has no leverage on the spear, much stronger connection..etc. ) but at the same time, with a flopper you have more control over the fish as well. Ive shot (comparatively small) grouper in cracks and they pretty much just flare their opercular plates and hunker down. Sometimes they are just too large to fit through the crack you shot them in, and unless you can break the coral (which i try to avoid) the fish is gonna be lost.


    Awesome story btw. Shitty deals!! Youll get your trophy one day bro. :thumbsup2::thumbsup2:

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