Mystery pinnacle

There's been a lot of emails concerning this trip, so I thought I would clarify to the best of my abilities. It was around 6pm Thursday (07/14/11) when I got a call from a good spearfishing buddy of mine, Pedro. Pedro tells me that he's taking off to Cay Sal bank to do a some spearfishing the next morning with his dive buddies, Jose, Ricky, and Damon. I've been dying to document some hunting in Cay Sal for a couple of years, so I jumped at the opportunity. He goes on to tell me that we'll be pushing off at 2am to make the run, and that he would be by around 1am to pick me up.

I hadn't met anyone previously before the trip, but Pedro reassured me these guys don't fuck around and that we would be getting into some big grouper, which I was thrilled to hear. So we launch out of Blackpoint Marina around 1:30am, and the weather couldn't have been better. Less than 5kts of wind and glassy. That's when they drop the bomb on me; we're not going to Cay Sal. They told me Cay Sal to throw me off the scent, just in case I had told anyone where I was going the previous day.

They made me sit on the bow cooler so I couldn't get a look at the gps. At night, I wouldn't have a beat on landmarks regardless; all I know is that they ran south. It was a 5 hour run to the mystery spot. I had no idea where the hell we were when we arrived. It must have been around 6:30-7:00am. We took half an hour to rig up and get ready. Sun was just coming up, and we had been running through the night under a full moon. Few times you get to see the sun and full moon in the same sky.

    Stoned 50lb Black. Notice the 90 degree shaft    

                         Jose wrestling a 55lb Black Grouper out of a ledge

At around 8:30am, Ricky, Jose, and Pedro start stalking a big grouper. This is where teamwork comes into play in this sport which you would think is more individualistic. The grouper is swimming towards a ledge in 80ft on the sand. He holes up in the ledge for a moment before coming out and darting into open water, Ricky is able to get in front of him and coax him back into the ledge. Jose is already down at depth and takes great head shot at the big black while he's under the ledge. 10 minutes of work and they had another big black on the boat.

                               Pedro with a 65lb Black Grouper, stoned!

Than the next drop he disposes of another, twin 65-70lb grouper. The viz isn't great, and getting worse throughout the day. The next image doesn't justify what Pedro went through to stalk, shoot and dispose if this fish. Not to mention the sharks. The current was ripping which made holding ground tiring enough, especially when you're breathing up to shoot a fish in 70ft of water. In the video, all you hear is his contractions on the way up. Pretty work, and a hell of a dive.

                  Pedro Disposing of another  grouper. Starting to get sharky


At this point the trip was made. Any other fish would just be a cherry on top, and than Jose and Ricky went and gone done did it. We moved spots, and sure enough, after some teamwork Jose was swimming up with this +70lb black.

                 Jose with a 67lb black weighed 8 hours later. We'll give you 75lb

At this point I'm trying to process the size of the fish on the deck. It hadn't registered in my mind what I was looking at. It must have been 1pm at this point. Not a half hour goes by when I see Ricky tracking something. Those carbon fins can be a bitch on the surface, but this guy just sprinted 100 yards on top of a black, and than made a 70ft dive for a shot. I get to go on a lot of boats and am lucky enough to dive with some accomplished spearo's, but Ricky made them look like little kids that day. Especially when he brought this moose out of a deep hole.

                    Slick Rick with an 82lb Black Grouper. Making it look easy

All in all I'm still trying to recover from that day of diving. Wanted to thank the team for having me and for all the education. Just wanted to fill in the curious cats who were asking about the trip. Until next post,  keep it bent at 90 degrees and safe diving.

Till next adventure,
Raul Boesel Jr
www.rulophoto.com