Spearfishing – Syndication Server

Angler spears world-record-size paddlefish in ‘trip to remember’

On the day’s final dive in Beaver Lake, Chris Cantrell hoped for a striped bass but instead speared a potential world-record paddlefish.

On the final dive of the day in Beaver Lake, Chris Cantrell was hoping for a striped bass but instead speared a potential spearfishing world-record paddlefish in what he described as “a trip to remember.”

Cantrell shot the 90-pound, 12-ounce paddlefish in the Arkansas lake while spearfishing with a friend and his brother-in-law Kalvin Cackler near the dam last weekend, according to the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

Cantrell was in 15 to 20 feet of water when he saw a large shape and thought it was a gar, but as he got closer, he saw it was a huge paddlefish and took the shot.

“I dropped the gun after the shot because the fish made a strong dive when it was hit,” Cantrell told the AGFC. “With a big fish, you drop the gun so that it doesn’t pull you down. The float line will keep it pinned. By the time I was back at the surface, the fish had already pulled the line from the gun and the 50 feet of float line. It was pulling against the float at the surface.

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“It probably took 10 to 15 minutes. I had to let the float line work about four or five times during the fight when the fish made hard runs.”

Once he tired the fish, Cantrell pulled what he thought could be a record into the boat, and then faced a dilemma. Where would he weigh the fish?

“It was a holiday weekend, so finding somewhere with certified scales that was open took a long time,” Cantrell said. “The AGFC office was closed, and certified scales are required for any record submissions. My sister actually suggested we try calling a UPS store. To my surprise, one agreed.”

Eventually, Jon Stein, regional fisheries supervisor for the AGFC, confirmed the species and the record fish.

The Arkansas record for a paddlefish caught on hook and line is 118 pounds, 9 ounces, also caught in Beaver Lake, in 2020.

Spearfisherman fights off shark attack; ‘thought it was my last day’

A spearfisherman feared for his life when a shark charged and bit him in the leg, forcing him to fight off the attack with his speargun.

A spearfisherman in Australia “thought it was my last day” Sunday when a bull shark charged and bit him in the leg, forcing him to fight off the attack with his speargun.

Phillip Brown, 24, was fishing for barramundi near Rocky Island off Yarrabah when he came face to face with the shark after exploring a cave 10-feet deep, according to TropicNow (a news agency in Cairns) and the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

https://www.facebook.com/TropicNow/posts/3117598161857034

“We sort of both got a fright from each other, but I was still a long way from the rocks, so I tried to swim a bit faster to the rock,” he told TropicNow.

“I knew what was going to happen; he’s a bull shark, he’s going to have a go at me.

“As I just grabbed the rock, it came up from behind and grabbed my leg.

“I just felt a big, numb jerk. It twisted, popped my knee out the socket. If I didn’t have the dislocated knee, I think he probably would have ripped it off.

“I stabbed him on top of the head with the spear gun and he took off, but he kept circling around because I was losing a lot of blood.”

But by then, Brown was in ankle-deep water where two friends and two nephews came to his rescue, using an anchor rope as a tourniquet around his thigh and a shirt tied to his lower leg to stem the flow of blood.

They carried him to the boat and transported him to a hospital in his hometown of Yarrabah where he was initially treated before being airlifted to Cairns Hospital where he underwent surgery. The extent of his injuries was unclear.

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“I thought it was my last day,” he told TropicNow. “I thought I was going to lose my leg or lose my life.”

The traumatic experience has not deterred him from going spearfishing again.

“I go a lot of places diving — Batt Reef, Tongue Reef, all the outer reefs,” he told ABC.

“And then I get torn up at home, right in my own front yard — it was just the wrong place at the wrong time I guess.

“I’ll be going back diving, but I won’t be diving back at home. I’ll just go back out to the reefs, in the clear water.”

Photo of sharks courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.

Divers ‘fight for their lives’ during relentless leopard seal attack

Three spearfishermen are fortunate to be alive after they were attacked relentlessly Sunday by a leopard seal in South Africa’s False Bay.

Three spearfishermen are fortunate to be alive after a prolonged attack Sunday by a leopard seal in South Africa’s False Bay.

The harrowing ordeal – the seal disarmed the divers and bit them repeatedly – began over a reef more than 400 yards offshore.

According to the National Sea Rescue Institute, two of the men are Jiu Jitsu instructors and one is a Cape Town Municipal Lifeguard. Despite their superb conditioning, they barely prevailed in an exhausting “fight for their lives.”

Jerome Petersen, 50, of Stellenbosch; Joshua Joubert, 40, of Bloubergstrand, and Cameron Vannithing, 24, of Strand, were treated by NSRI and Cape Medical Response personnel after reaching the shore. Their injuries were serious but not life-threatening.

The NSRI, which issued a public safety warning on Tuesday, provided details of the attack in a news release:

“About 400 meters offshore, between Spaniard Rock and Caravan Reef, having reached a reef to begin spearfishing, Jerome dived to the sea bed when he was bitten on the leg by a seal that continued relentlessly biting and bumping the three spearfishermen while they desperately tried to get back to shore.

“The seal snapped and broke off their flippers, disarmed them of their spearguns and caused serious bites, puncture wounds and soft-tissue injuries, scrapes and bruising.

“They fought for over half-an-hour before finally reaching the shore exhausted and bewildered by what had transpired.

“They attribute their survival to years of experience with the sea and their high fitness levels and state-of-the-art equipment that they had with them,” the NSRI stated. “A 5-millimeter wetsuit arguably saved Jerome from fatal injuries.”

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City of Cape Town authorities are monitoring pinniped activity and have warned ocean enthusiasts to be extra cautious.

Leopard seals inhabit Antarctic pack ice but can also be found in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania, and other Southern Hemisphere locations.

They’re large, powerful pinnipeds that hunt warm-blooded prey, including other seals. Attacks on humans are rare but have occurred.

According to the New Zealand Department of Conservation, at least one human fatality has been attributed to a leopard seal attack.

–Leopard seal image is generic

Freediver spears world-record halibut in frigid Alaskan waters

A freediver who braved Alaska’s frigid waters in search of a spearfishing challenge has set a world record for Pacific halibut.

“I love a good challenge and Alaska was definitely the right playing field,” Lisa Stengel stated on Instagram. “The water is cold, the visibility is bad, the current is worse but the abundance of wildlife and the coastline views are stunning.”

Stengel shot the 71.4-pound halibut in 46-degree water while wearing a 7-millimeter wetsuit and diving out of Homer with Coldwater Alaska on July 12.

Lisa Stengel with her record halibut. Photo: ©James Ferrara

The 32-year-old from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., told FTW Outdoors that she was hunting at a depth of 25-30 feet when she spotted the halibut swimming just above the kelp floor. She registered a perfect shot that incapacitated the powerful fish.

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“I don’t have the exact time [of the struggle] but it wasn’t long,” she said. “Just long enough to battle the current.”

The International Underwater Spearfishing Assn. recently announced her world record in the Women Sling / Polespear category.

Stengel, who used an 8-foot Headhunter NOMAD Roller Polespear, told the IUSA that the plan to hunt for record halibut was months in the making, and that success didn’t occur until the final day of the Coldwater Alaska expedition.

“For several days we dove the dark, murky, 46-degree water, navigating through kelp to dial-in tracking the halibut,” Stengel recalled. “On the final day, we missed our window of diving at slack tide, fighting a very strong current while chumming the waters. I was close to exhaustion, but we were seeing halibut so I decided to persevere through one more dive.

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“I cocked my polespear while descending so I would be ready once the bottom came into view. I spotted two halibut butterflying just above the kelp floor, the one closest to me being the biggest. I lined my polespear up just behind the gill plate towards the lateral line, kicked in for a close punch, and let it pile drive through the fish.”

The halibut went limp and Stengel realized she had a “holding shot.” She quickly gathered her float line and secured the record fish.

–Images courtesy of James Ferrara

Florida diver praised after spearing record lionfish

A Florida diver set two records recently by spearing and removing a large lionfish from the Gulf of Mexico.

The lionfish measured 18.7 inches and weighed 3.77 pounds, making it the longest and heaviest of its species speared in Florida’s Gulf waters.

Whitfield, while diving June 10 off Okaloosa County, was participating in a state-sponsored program that encourages the removal of invasive lionfish by any legal means of fishing.

“Wow, nice, good riddance,” reads one of several Facebook comments praising Whitfield for his catch.

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, two species of lionfish native to the Indo-Pacific have “invaded” Florida waters and may pose a significant threat to native wildlife and habitat.

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The predatory and venomous reef fish were first discovered off Florida’s Atlantic Coast in 1985. They’ve since multiplied and spread northward in the Atlantic, into the Caribbean, and into Gulf waters.

Lionfish tips scale at 3.77 pounds. Photo: FWC

In 2014 the FWC began to evaluate the lionfish population and develop outreach programs and remove regulatory barriers regarding the removal of lionfish.

The state now offers prize incentives and sponsors tournaments specific to lionfish. The annual Lionfish Challenge is an integral link in the population control effort.

In 2019, 25,000 lionfish were removed during the Challenge. In 2020, 21,569 lionfish were harvested and David Connerth was proclaimed Lionfish King after he removed 1,141 lionfish via recreational fishing methods.

Gary Whitfield (right) poses with record lionfish. Photo: FWC

Isidoro Bedoya was named Commercial Champion after removing 1,196.5 pounds of lionfish.

The state also recognizes weight and length records in spearfishing and hook-and-line categories for Atlantic and Gulf waters.

Whitfield’s speared lionfish, at 3.77 pounds, is the heaviest overall. The angling weight record stands at 2.3 pounds, set by Darren Parker in the Gulf in 2016.

Hawaii freediver happily endures whale shark ‘attack’; video

Kara Pedersen was spearfishing off Oahu’s Waianae coast last weekend when her dive partner yelled, “Shark!” It turned out to be a giant whale shark that “plowed right into me.”

Kara Pedersen was spearfishing off Oahu’s Waianae coast last week when her dive partner yelled, “Shark!”

Pedersen looked up, expecting to see a dangerous tiger shark. But it was a much larger whale shark that apparently did not see her.

“When I looked up there was a massive whale shark right behind him and headed straight towards me,” Pedersen, a veteran freediver, told For The Win Outdoors. “I didn’t have enough time to swim out of the way and it just plowed right into me, pushing me onto its back.

“It was simultaneously one of the coolest and scariest moments of my life. To feel the force of an animal so big was pretty surreal.” (See Pedersen’s video below and on Instagram.)

Whale shark sightings off Waianae are rare so it was a wonderful surprise for Pedersen and Steve Murphy to be able to swim alongside the plankton-eating gentle giant for several minutes.

The footage, jokingly titled, “Shark Attack,” shows a portion of the encounter that occurred after Pedersen and Murphy had been tossed a GoPro from the dive boat.

Interestingly, the whale shark seemed to interact with both freedivers (no scuba gear), especially Pedersen, as Galapagos sharks lingered a bit farther away.

Whale shark swims toward the camera. Photo: Kara Pedersen

Pedersen’s boyfriend, Rob Ryan, was on the boat cleaning a fish that he had speared before the whale shark appeared, perhaps explaining the shark activity.

Of the initial collision, Pedersen said, “Luckily, they are harmless animals and I was able to push off and get out of the way of its tail.

“Surprisingly though, she kept swimming back towards me and made several close passes. I think she really liked my Waihana wetsuit and how I blended into the environment.”

Whale sharks are the planet’s largest fish and can measure nearly 40 feet and weigh 20,000 pounds. They feed by swimming through plankton blooms with their mouths open.

Pedersen said swimming with a whale shark had always been on her bucket list and added: “But this encounter exceeded our expectations.”

Shark charges spearfisherman, bites off swim fin

Video footage shows a bull shark charging a spearfisherman in an encounter in which the 17-year-old diver thought he would lose his foot.

Lachlan Pye, a 17-year-old spearfisherman, experienced a frightening encounter with a bull shark that “came out of nowhere” and bit off his right swim fin. The young diver thought he would lose his foot.

The harrowing incident occurred last Saturday off Lucinda, Queensland, Australia. Pye was diving with a friend as another friend remained on the boat to keep an eye out for such an incident as this.

It started when a friend shot a golden snapper that fell off his spear, Pye explained to USA Today/For The Win Outdoors.

“I went down for a look and saw it just sitting on the bottom,” Pye said. “I took the easy shot and started to come up. As I came up, this bull shark charged me. It came out of nowhere.”

The shark wasn’t interested in the fish but Pye’s swim fin, which it bit into and pulled off his foot, as seen in the video:

“I thought I was going to lose my foot to be honest with you,” Pye told For The Win Outdoors. “I thought it was going to try to bite me again. I was just kicking up trying to get away from it.

“When I came in, I was really freaking out and was in shock.”

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Pye lost the swim fin, but not the fish or speargun.

At first, he also lost his desire to go diving again, but he regained it when people told him his fins had attracted the shark with their flashy, white rails along the sides.

Pye’s mother, Karen Wood, probably desires he not go diving again, however.

“When he came home, he was quite vague and sketchy about the details,” Wood told For The Win Outdoors. “I was having birthday drinks and he casually told me a shark bit his new fin. I asked him, did it do much damage and he’s like, yeah, it took it. Didn’t go into too much detail. Then he showed me his video the next day and I nearly died from a heart attack once I saw how serious it was and how big the shark was.”

Photos courtesy of Lachlan Pye and ViralHog.

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Spearfisherman dragged out to sea by great white shark

An eyewitness believed a spearfisherman had been fatally attacked by a great white shark after noticing only a fishing floatation buoy bobbing in the waters 200 yards off South Africa with no sign of the diver. But when rescuers arrived on the …

But when rescuers arrived on the scene, they found spearfisherman Theodore Prinsloo safely on shore with an amazing story to share about a 16-foot shark dragging him out to sea, this according to the National Sea Rescue Institute Plettenberg Bay station commander Marc Rodgers.

Prinsloo was on vacation with his family in Nature’s Valley, a holiday resort on the Southern Cape coast, when the incident occurred Wednesday.

He noticed a shark swimming in the vicinity he was spearfishing and suspected it was the same shark that had been seen in the area the day before. Prinsloo had kept close to the rocks as the shark swam up close to him at one point.

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Twenty minutes after hooking a 20-pound musselcracker fish onto his fishing floatation buoy, the shark reappeared and grabbed the fish and began swimming out to sea, dragging Prinsloo with it. Rodgers said the shark took Prinsloo about 165 feet before the diver managed to unhook the floatation buoy from his spear gun and escape the shark.

He then quickly swam to shore.

The crew aboard the NSRI rescue craft did make one rescue on the day, but it was too late to save the musselcracker, as only its head remained.

“We recovered the buoy, line and the fish head onto our sea rescue craft and Theodore and his family came to fetch the buoy and line at our sea rescue base,” Rodgers said. “Theodore [said] that he needs the buoy to go spearfishing tomorrow and is grateful that NSRI recovered his buoy.”

Photo showing Prinsloo getting his floatation buoy back courtesy of the National Sea Rescue Institute.

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