[Nesim]

The boat was next to us and the captain once again looked amazed, (this is the third time he captains for me and on the first trip I pull out a 40.5kg grouper, 2 weeks ago I get the 27-30kg GT and now this monster). We got on to the boat and put our gear back together, before starting a photo session. I looked at the fish and looked back at my brother who was staring at me and the fish as well, at this point we were both wondering if I broke his record that he set 5 years ago with a GT that weighed 42kg (note: he landed that fish using a Cressi Sub 90 cm gun with one 20 mm band and a 6.5 mm shaft with NO real or bungee line in about 15 meters of water, he was lucky to get a stone shot in the head with the flopper not even making it into the fish). At that point I felt like I’ve got it. I am so soar in my legs and shoulders that there is no way this fish can be less than 40, I decided to pick it up for the photo shoot and wow, it feels even heavier than my 40.5 kg grouper, my aching body doesn’t help the situation neither does my bad back, but I proceed with the photos, this is after all a dream fish, and pictures last forever. For the first time in many years I end up taking pictures with my brother, it’s been a while since we’ve helped one another with a fish, and feel like his efforts helped make the battle shorter and guaranteed. We lost half an hour with the pics, and moved on to our next spot, I didn’t feel like diving much any more, I was very tiered, but Nasim was ready for a come back. He finally decides to use his wooden gun, it’s a 130 cm with 4 16mm bands, we had lots of problems with that gun, even snapping the handle off after shooting it with 3 18mm bands, but now with some modifications a new handle and a set of wings it appears to be great, it shoots accurately, and with a range of 8 meters it’s a CANON.

I got in the water for 2 reasons, one is to be a buddy for my brother, and two, I still had the thoughts of landing a huge king fish. The next few hours went by with no monsters showing up, and we spent the last hour of the day looking for a sandy beach to camp on and wonder what the other 6 islands, 1 wreck and 1 underwater pinnacle hold in store for us. Finally we mark one beach on the GPS as it looked to be a good enough camping spot, at this point we have just over 100 km to make it back to the boat ramp, and also a long drive home. We are both fulfilled with the way the day turned out, a big king fish would of been nice, but no complaints this time, we found a new respect for GT’s and are fortunate enough to experience such brutal force and power, and end up with very memorable moments…