World Record White SeaBass on 20 lb line

As everyone that hunts White Seabass already knows, the big girls show up first and this year it looks like its no different. Each year the fish have been getting bigger and despite some complaints at the strict regulations and MPA’s over the past couple years it has been great for the fishery and the size of the fish reflect that.
This stud was 76.4 lbs which is a benchmark fish and I’m hoping in the coming months that I’ll see some Spearo’s with fish of similar size or bigger. Judging by Ernst current WR and reports that divers have seen some in the 90-100# class in recent years… the record will be broken again soon.
Most of you will dismiss this because it is fishing but you need to read between the lines here and become a better spearfisherman by noticing the key decision these guys made that let to catching the fish of a lifetime.
Think outside the box, the plan can always change.
It never hurts to investigate activity that you see on the surface and can lead to some of the best diving of your life. Always be flexible in your plans and be ready for anything.
Have any of you found big White SeaBass in open water before on bait schools?

Three Amigos. Big White Sea Bass always look good on the deck

White Sea Bass, aka the Grey Ghost
As a West Coaster you have heard of them, hunted them, fished for them, heard them croak eerily somewhere in the distance and painfully smiled as you’ve seen your friends and other boats land them right beside you.
There are many secrets to hunting and fishing for WSB. The most successful divers have paid careful attention for years and taken mental notes each and every time they catch a glimpse of a tail or are lucky enough to glimpse the hazy off white shade of a big Croakers side.
I’ve made two WSB dive trips.
But I’ve hunted them a thousand times over in my mind and been preparing for them long before I first pulled on that 5 mil green camo suit.

Preparation:
Be ready.
When you arrive on the spot, have your gear set. Don’t be messing around with it at the last minute. Have your booties in your fin pocket and your gloves in your other fin pocket with your mask and snorkel around them both and your weightbelt right here with them. Have your wetsuit out and ready to put on and your gun you are going to use already out and ready.
If the space in the boat allows it, find a corner that no one else is using or a spot on the rail you can keep your gear organized and neat.
Now you can get in the water when you are ready knowing your gear is all in one place. This gives you time to help anchor, get other peoples gear, put up the dive flag, and you aren’t stressing at the last minute getting your heart rate up.

Scope it out:
You’ve reached the kelp bed and you are rushing to get in the water but you are about to blow it if you don’t pay attention. When you are approaching the area you are going to dive, do so slowly, quietly and courteously to the other boats that are already there. If you can hear WSB croaking hundreds of yards away imagine how far they can hear the unnatural sound of an outboard, inboard or jet ski engine.
As you approach, look at the direction the kelp stalks are flowing and take note of the current direction. Look for birds working or bait ripples on the surface. Make a mental picture in your mind how the whole scene looks from your vantage point in the boat. Use other boats, headlands, and anything else that helps you pin point where you are in the kelp bed with just a glimpse above the water.

Always hunt:
As soon as you touch the water you are hunting. Within 10 feet and ten seconds I have already made my first dive. Get the bubbles out of the suit, dive to 20-30 ft and cock your gun while you are there, stretch your lungs and work your way over to the area you are diving.
Too often divers, especially bluewater and WSB hunters who spot 90% of their prey from the surface don’t ever dive until they see something because they don’t feel the need. When a fish does come their first dive they aren’t stretched out and they blow a big fart bubble out the back of their suit and in a flash they’ve blown their first shot of the day.

Shut the %$%^ up!
You know where you want to go, go there quietly.

Keep hunting:
On the surface or underwater you are looking above, below, behind, and in every direction. The Kelp forest is 3 dimensional and the fish can be anywhere so keep your head on a swivel and be ready to shoot in any direction.

Soldier up:
Your looking everywhere so you need to be able to shoot anywhere when you do see a fish. Keep the gun underneath you and with both hands on it when the water is dirty. No matter how good you are the fish aren’t always going to be right in front of you so reduce your profile and keep the gun in a position where you can easily swivel to shoot anywhere at any time.
This means even when you are heading for the surface. if your gun isn’t pointing up when you are heading for the surface you might as well have left it in the boat. It is very difficult and way to much movement to change the from trailing a gun to pointing it forward again when a fish is sighted on your way up. Whoops you just missed that sleeper just under the surface.
Remember you are in the water, you are hunting. That means while you are on the surface or diving up or down.

Visualize the fish:
It is rare in dirty or clean water that you’ll see an entire fish. Usually it is just a fin or outline or different movement in the distance.
When I’m hunting my mind is making a fish out of everything I see. Every kelp stalk or shadow or light spot I’m automatically visualizing a fish made from that one tiny part as if I’ve been given the first piece of a puzzle and I have to put the rest of it together.
You are already good it this, you do this every time you see a hot girl or guy and are trying to imagine what they look like with a lot or all (Brandon’s mind) of their clothes off.
This will be one of your most valuable tools as a Spearfisherman or hunter if you can master it.

Fact: WSB are unpredictable as hell
Go up current and see if there are any bait and hunt the edge of the bait on the kelp side for WSB and outside for Yellowtail.
Work the edge of the kelp all the way around from the bottom to the surface looking for the fish. If you spot one at 45 feet then thats probably where the rest of them are so make your dives to that depth and keep your eyes open.
If they aren’t deep then they might be shallow, or midwater, or in the next kelp bed.
There is nothing better than time in the water. Even the biggest Cones shoot WSB and consistently at that. (a derogatory term short for Coneheads used in exchange for the term Touron (tourist-moron), Jackass, Domer, or Kook) They spend a lot of time in the water and eventually you are going to come across a fish. If you are ready you will get a shot.
Listen to reports and network with the divers and fisherman in your area. When the fish are there you need to be as well but its the guys that don’t say anything about it and instead keep their mouths shut and put the time in the water year after year shoot fish because they were there before the crowds putting the time in the water.

Riffe Euro 120 with horizontal reel

On the two trips I’ve made for WSB:
The first time, I made over 200 dives as did one of the best hunters on the California coast that same day beside me and we were both skunked while a relative rookie diver landed one.
The second time I was “lucky” enough to take a limit of three fish over 40 lbs while the other 8 divers on the boat didn’t even get a glimpse of the Ghost.
This just goes to show that no matter how prepared you are there is always a bit of luck involved. Put everything in place so that you can keep luck on your side and you will be successful when the time comes.

Willie

119 lb Wahoo from last year. Just a few lbs short of the World Record. The visibility was about as bad as it gets. On the surface was less than a few inches. I had to put my watch against my mask to see it.A fins free ascent in the Grotto in Saipan. Another DJ Struntz Photo

11lb Lobster Freediving last month in North Carolina

11lb Langosta Freediving

Big Bull Dolphin in Gulf of Mexico

Dolphin Camoflauge. Riffe Cryptic suit and this fish fit perfect.

A nice Pacific Cubera Snapper dragged up on a deep dive off Mexico. Brad got this one on film from start to finish then I filmed him stoning the smaller one with a Hawaiian sling. I'd put him up against anyone with a Hawaiian sling he is arguably one of the best in the world with them for sure.

Nice East Coast Cubera Snapper shot by Chris Gardinal. I'm claiming the assist since I saw it floating a half mile from the Wreck enroute to the next spot and then we gaffed it to land it. 63 lbs.

Nice Black Grouper in the Florida Keys. This is one of the first trips with the 130 Euro and the results were pretty good.

119lb Wahoo.

100+lb Yellowfin Tuna in the Gulf of Mexico. On my fourth drop of the day he came up and coaxed me deeper. I pulled the trigger at 77 feet and it was a long drop for so early in the day at 1:34. Just goes to show that being in shape is important so you can be ready at any time.

There is so much to this photo it goes to show why DJ Struntz is one of the best photographers in the world. This is Craig diving down to get his hands on a nice Rainbow Runner, It had just started raining and we were rushing to get some pics in the clear water before the sun disappeared. The angle of the pic is just right so that he is facing the part of the sky away from the black ominous cloud that is sending the rain to sprinkle the surface and give it that amazing texture. The Yellow/orange glow in the upper left is actually the oil rig through the surface of the water. Amazing picture. Craigs posture and the action that you can feel through the picture doesn't happen every day.

I first met Stevo in East Nusa Tengarra (Indonesia). I was there with a few of my buddies hunting Dogtooth Tuna and Waves and he was there with Wes Mannion and his cameraman catching snakes and monitors and anything else that moved. The first afternoon I surfed with just the three of us out and we talked about all the different travels we'd had and he said he was jealous at what a good life I'd been able to lead. Hearing him hooting on the shoulder as I dropped in on a wave and doing the same for him was one of the coolest experiences. As it turns out two Cyclones trapped us all on the little island and we were stuck together for 2 weeks trading stories and catching snakes and waves. We all became good friends and when we finally escaped back to Bali we had some big nights out on the town together. Steve and Wes were one of the big reasons I started going to Australia. Great people. He was as passionate about life off camera as he was on and the smile on his face in the mornings when he'd meet us to get on the boat to take out surfing and spearing couldn't do justice for how stoked he was to have spent the last four hours chasing cobras in the Rice Paddies while we were out shooting breakfast. And he thought we were nuts! Classic Steve, we're surfing double overhead Nusa Dua and he suddenly bails off his board to chase down a sea snake that has surfaced in the lineup.

My first Mulloway (Jewfish) Australias version of a White Sea Bass. Not the smartest fish in the ocean. If you can find them you can get them most of the time. This one was in a huge school of fish on a drop off. The swim so tightly together its a wonder more doubles aren't speared. Its difficult to choose the big ones out of the school. A week later we were diving the coast in 6 foot vis and I crept up on a school of 10 lb ones that were schooled up in front of a big rock. Waiting trying to figure out which one was the biggest the rock suddenly turned and I realized it was a Mulloway that was easily 80-100 lbs. I sent a hail mary shot into the dark but to no avail. I'm still bummed I missed out on that one. I've never even seen one like that in pictures.

Big Black Grouper and Amberjack Pole Spearing in the Bahamas. Brad Thornbrough hit the AJ with a hawaiian sling and it took us 10 minutes to chase him down and get him in the boat. I know you could care less about where the fish came from though. Not too shabby for a crew huh?

275 lbs Pacific Blue Marlin World Record

GR (RedTide) Tarr and my dad Kirk Kirkconnell with a good day of Wahoo in Florida. One of my favorite days on the water watching my dad shoot his first hoo. This was also one of the best 5 minutes of my spearfishing life. GR and I let my dad shoot all day and we filmed until he was ready to take a break for a bit. Next drift the school came by and I stoned one, reached the surface and yelled for dad to get in the water, strung the first one, reloaded, stoned another one, strung him, reloaded and had the third within 3 minutes. The boat was only about 150 yards away and it happened so fast I don't think the wahoo, me or anyone else really believed it when I handed the gun and 150 lbs of fish into the boat. What a blur. This same day GR shot a big one and stoned it but it fell off the shaft. While he was reloaded we drifted over the fish which was laying on the bottom at 100 ft. GR dives down and grabs it in the gills and it instantly comes to life and like a striped underwater scooter, shot him to the surface so fast I could almost hear him laughing underwater and his eyes were bugging out of his head it was so hilarious.

I think it was the Saint Pete Open that was coming up the next day and I couldn't get anyone that wanted to dive it with me. The day before I went out and took pictures and video of each of the fish that I wanted to shoot and sent them to a few of my friends trying to convince them to do the tourney with me. This is a 15 lb Mangrove Snapper. We took 1st and 2nd Place in the Tournament. Nole Karcher couldn't handle seeing this one and made the drive to the east coast...This Amberjack was the same day that Steve blacked out and I ended up shooting him. In all that day I shot an 85 and 105lb Amberjack and Steve Bennet who was around 165. One of the best and worst days of my life.

Craig and the Tiger Shark. This was a gnarly day as you can imagine. I spent most of it in the boat so DJ and Ryan could get some time in the water spearing. This is the only pic we have with both me and the Tiger shark in the same frame. If you look really closely you can see a little white speck over craigs shoulder. That is me, swimming with a beer in my hand, no fins on, chasing the boat which is drifting close by.