The IUSA Word Record Weakfish

Back in 2009 we were hitting the Inlet hard every spring spearfishing out of an old V bottom aluminum boat with a 10hp out board that worked half the time. The boat was really for duck hunting but operated amazing for 2 guys to dive from. If the current was mellow could even tag line to the boat instead of anchoring and use it as your float. That boat had is flaws for sure. One day on a hard north east with 2-3 foot swell, we were coming back in and the motor bogged out at the mouth of the inlet. In we went and swam that boat to some slack water to restart the motor.

That little skiff definitely had its share of blood on its deck and it's the boat that produced my IUSA world record for Weakfish. It was a super hot day and a dive partner and my self were working the incoming tide. It was early morning and the parade of whale watching boats, head boats and people going for a ride didn't start yet so we were inside the inlet on the south side. Lazily drifting in with the current I had the aluminum on a 50' float line with a bungee so it could give a bit on the dives. A lot of times I would drift faster than the boat underwater, then while breathing up on the surface it would catch back up and down I went. The morning was a mix of small schoolie striped bass, lots of tautog not in season and the occasional snapper blues. Up and down we worked the rocks melting into the giant boulders hiding from the fish hunting the edge of the inlet.

About three quarters of the way down there is a flat area in the rocks that sticks out under water and is maybe 8' -12' deep then drops off to the sand. I've seen some really big striped bass in there before just resting. I was gliding inches above the flat section, gun ready and parallel to the drop off when I saw a school of fish metalizing out of the murky water, almost like adjust your unfocused binoculars the fish came into view. It was about 5 Weakfish all close to the same size, almost out of breath I fully relaxed and instinctively lined the gun up with the lead fish and squeezed the trigger. The spear slices through the water and lands right behind the head blowing though the fish. A few kicks and I break surface and begin placing hand over hand on the line to pull the fish up. At first I didn't think much, its dinner. I threw the fish in the boat and kept diving. Once my partner Jim and I got in the boat together he wanted to weigh it and thought it might be a record. The excitement started to rise so back to the truck we went. We went to the local Bait and Tackle that had a certified scale, after being killed for about 2 hrs and on ice it weighed in at 11.8 pounds. I'll be the first to say that I'm sure that the record has been broken unknowingly. I've seen bigger since then but have not been able to connect. A few years later on a super clear day, I was diving Barnegat inlet and chased a school of what looked like 15 pounders into the back bay out onto the sand flats. I must have caught up to and dove on them a half dozen times but just couldn't get close enough for a shot.