# July 4th Spearfishing report. Amberjack of a lifetime!



## FenderBender

Made it out today with my friend Drew (lakerivers) on his boat for a little much neededfishing and diving. Made it out to the first spot about 4 a.m. took a nap and woke up to the sounds of blackfin and bonita busting hardtails nearby. I threw on my mask and fins, but the fish were moving too fast and too deep to get a shot. I did get a close encounter with a dolphin in the water with me which was fun. Drew managed to put a nice scamp in the boat while I was swimming around. Well we each did a dive and I shot a 20 poundish AJ which at the time I was quite proud of. 

Drew salvaged 3 anchors for his boat  Well the bite turned off and we decided to move to another wreck a few miles away. I jumped on it first and tied the boat into the wreck. Went to the bottom, looked around and didn't see much worth shooting just a big turtle and some smallish snapper. I come back up to around 100 feet and the biggest amberjack I have ever seen in my life charges right in on me and turns broadside not 5 feet away from me. I don't know what I was thinking, but I didn't hesitate and slammed all 3 bands of my woody magnum's steel about 3 inches behind his eye. *The shaft didn't even go halfway through his head at full power and close range!!! *The fish is stunned, I knew I put a good shot on him my the way he kind of rolled, but he doesn't hesistate to take me to 130 feet like a rag doll in tow! About this time reality kicks in and I realize what I may have gotten myslef into. I wrestle him on the sand and repeatly slam my knife into his head, trying to kill him off. I tried ripping his gills out ( they REALLY HATE that! :banghead) and finally get him somewhat subdued. All the while the shaft is getting looser and looser and I know I have to hurry. I finally get him up to the downline I tied off (about 90 ft.) and feel much more comfortable I have some leverage if he tries to run on me again. 

About this time I feel calm he kicks and knocks my regulator out of my mouth, knocking the mouthpiece off the reg. My first stage is free flowing like crazy and I grab my octo and keep moving up. About this time the cudas start moving in. I'm jabbing at them wildy with my knife (actually hit one!) and holding the downline and the shaft and this dinosaur sized AJ and trying not to ascend too fast. Needless to say I decided the 15 ft. stop was not in my best interest at this point and hit the surface saying "Drew I need your help NOW!!" He looks over the side of the boat and says "HOLY COW!!" He manages some kind of superman muscle ninja lift and picks up the fish and shaft and singlehandedly slings them into the boat. Fish goes nuts, proceeds to destroy everything in the boat for next 3 minutes. I'm still in the water half in shock when Drew says there is a shark coming in on me. Screw this, I'm gettin in the boat!! Step in the boat and realize that I truly have shot the fish of a lifetime. Thank God for keeping me safe as so many things could have went wrong on this dive, but everything went just perfect. Thanks Drew, it was a blast as always. Just what I needed to recharge my batteries to get me through another month in hell  see ya'll again in august!

final weight at outcast, 93 lbs 15 oz!!!!

Straining to lift him!










both AJs










Drew with him










big ol head!










filled that box and then some!



















half as big as me










drew workin on him


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## PompNewbie

Holy Crap man!!! Nice AJ and sounds like a crazy ride to the top.

Glad you made it back ok with a fish like that :clap


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## 3boys

It was nice meeting you guys. That was one heck of a fish. Hope to weigh in more fish like that in the future for you.


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## konz

Holy sh** man!!!


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## Out Align

That is unfrikin believable :bowdown

I was at the gas station right there and saw yalls boat there this afternoon, wish I would have stopped in while you where there. 

You are my hero

I keep looking at that fish and thinking if you didn't shoot him he might have eaten you.


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## flyingfishr

HOLY CRAP MAN!!! You are going down in the PFF spearfishing halls of infamy! Great storry and sweet pics too. Not a bad way to spend the 4th. Wow, that is awesome.


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## SCUBA Junkie

That's a freaking sea monster dude. Way to go. :bowdown


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## FishinFL

WOW!!!!:clap:clap

:letsdrink


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## bmoore

Holy Jesus!

Truly an amazing feat. Great job!

:clap:bowdown


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## LATERALINE

damn... nice FISH!!! Sounds like fun or spearing a tuna or something!


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## true-king

Nice job! That fish box berely held him!


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## TUBBLAWNS

Hell yeah!!!!!!!!! Awesome feeling I'm sure. Congrats!!!!!


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## jspooney

dude...truly a great fish! Got any more picts?


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## Sniper Spear-It

cant wait till i get to pop one like that.Great fish.how far off shore were you guys?


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## [email protected]

awesome josh...........hows school going? if you have time give me a shout before you head back. emanual is back offshore and will be back early august maybe you can get away and take a trip with us. take care.


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## FenderBender

> *[email protected] (7/5/2008)*awesome josh...........hows school going? if you have time give me a shout before you head back. emanual is back offshore and will be back early august maybe you can get away and take a trip with us. take care.


Thanks Bob. School is going great, I'm making all A's and enjoying it... Morgan City/Louisiana sucks though! Ha ha I can't wait to graduate and move back asap. I can honestly say I have never known the true feeling of happiness til I pointed my truck east on highway 90 thursday headed this way. Pensacola truly is paradise  I love it here. Anyways we have a 2 week semester break starting July 30 so that will be the next time I'm in town. Defintly we'll have to hook up with Drew and Emmanuel and go. Tell him to give me a call when he gets back in. Oh and we were about 25 miles offshore.


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## WW2

Amazing fish, grats.


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## Clay-Doh

JOsh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is bad as hell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

you are my idol!!!!!! Balls of steel!!!!!!

Cant wait for you to send some pics for the website!!! :toast

:bowdown:bowdown:bowdown:bowdown:bowdown:bowdown:bowdown


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## GONU

Great fish! You Sir are the envy of many!! well done.


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## David Ridenour

Fantastic fish! Did you just say you blew a safety stop after being at 130? :nonono It's just a fish man! Keep your head so you can go again.


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## flyingfishr

Josh, this is like the fourth time I've read your post, that is NUTS! I'm curious though, where do you put yourballs when you are diving, because as big as they must be, they have to get in the way!


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## holy Spear-it

Awesome fish man!! Congrats on a fish that has illuded me for quite awhile. I just got off the phone with Clay and he told me the story. Way to keep your head.


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## Orion45

Superb Job.


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## Pierce07

Ya i saw yall come up to my work that thing was huge. Good fish


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## Orion45

I come back up to around 100 feet and the biggest amberjack I have ever seen in my life charges right in on me and turns broadside not 5 feet away from me. I don't know what I was thinking, but I didn't hesitate and slammed all 3 bands of my woody magnum's steel about 3 inches behind his eye. *The shaft didn't even go halfway through his head at full power and close range!!!*

Was the AJ 5 feet from you or the tip of your spear? I believe the reasonyour spear did notpenetrate any deeper is that the AJ was so close that the spear struck it before it cleared the speargun's muzzle. If the spear strikes a target before it completely clears the muzzle, it will not have reached maximum acceleration, i.e. maximum penetrating power. In any case, you did a great job bringing the AJ in. Congratulations. Too bad you bagged the AJ on July 4th vice July 19th.You would have beenthe winner.


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## Stressless

Simply outstanding!!



Congrats!



:toast

Stressless


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## FenderBender

> *David Ridenour (7/5/2008)*Fantastic fish! Did you just say you blew a safety stop after being at 130? :nonono It's just a fish man! Keep your head so you can go again.


Thanks for the compliments everyone, I truly feel blessed to have taken such a fish. It really was a lot of right place and the right time situation. I am fortunate to have stayed calm throughout the ordeal though.

David to answer your questiion, yes, according to my computer I did blow my safety stop but on my way up I realized that I was only at 130 for 2 minutes max, and that the US Navy Tables I dive by give me 5 minutes at 130 and still fall into the no deco limits. It had been about 6 hours SI since the previous dive which was a short one, so at worst I prob should have done 2 or 3 minutes at 10 ft. in water deco. I had plenty of air to do it, but with the fish about to shake loose and cudas all around, I made the decision to come on up. No excuse for bad behavior, as I normally stick strictly by the rules, but given the situation I felt confident I would not get bent. It would have been a shame to see a fish like that wasted by the cudas. I know my life is much more important than a fish, and had he initially swam UP instead of DOWN when I shot him, I would have cut the line immediatley. No fish is worth getting killed over. Thanks and dive safe.


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## FenderBender

> *Orion45 (7/5/2008)*I come back up to around 100 feet and the biggest amberjack I have ever seen in my life charges right in on me and turns broadside not 5 feet away from me. I don't know what I was thinking, but I didn't hesitate and slammed all 3 bands of my woody magnum's steel about 3 inches behind his eye. *The shaft didn't even go halfway through his head at full power and close range!!!*
> 
> Was the AJ 5 feet from you or the tip of your spear? I believe the reasonyour spear did notpenetrate any deeper is that the AJ was so close that the spear struck it before it cleared the speargun's muzzle. If the spear strikes a target before it completely clears the muzzle, it will not have reached maximum acceleration, i.e. maximum penetrating power. In any case, you did a great job bringing the AJ in. Congratulations. Too bad you bagged the AJ on July 4th vice July 19th.You would have beenthe winner.


He was probably 3 to 4 feet from the end of my spear. Looking at the pictures you can see the line just behind and below his eye where the tip went in and the wings spread out. It was probably one of the hardest spots on his body I could have hit him, a few inches back would have been better. I do not exxagerate when I say his head was a solid 10 to 12 inches wide though. When he opened his mouth fully, he could have swallowed a human baby. No lie! I don't think I could have landed him with a smaller gun.


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## Brandy

Good job Josh:clap


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## Chris Couture

Congrats! Nice AJ!


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## CurtyV22

Congrats My Brotha!!!! :banghead:banghead, why o why didnt i just blow off my obligations


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## Garbo

dang.


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## FelixH

That's a Nice one Josh! Congrats!!!

Felix


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## GMan

Josh you da man! Hope to see you soon out there. :letsdrink


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## Corpsman

Congrats!!


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## Telum Pisces

WOW, that's all I can really say. If I saw an AJ that size, I would not know whether to shoot or not. People that shoot AJ's that size usually take them with a breakaway rig tied to a float line. Not a shockcord. Trully amazing.:clap


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## Clay-Doh

Yer pimp hand is strong Josh!!!!:clap

David, with the stress he was under, and the amount of air he was consuming, and still at a fasst heart and breathing rate even when he did make it to 15 feet, it has been argued that it is better to NOT do a safety stop, because if you are fighting for control and still breathing very heavy, you are absorbing more nitrogen, and your tissue loading goes even higher, since even 15 feet IS a half an atmoshphere.

And safety stops, although a great thing, are still just that, a safety stop. My older computer I use will allow me to do a 66 feet per minute accent rate, and does not have ANY provisions for a safety stop. Of course, I still keep my accent under 33 fett per minute, and if doing multiple deep dives, I usually only do a 3rd of that, maybe 10 feet per minute, and take a long safety stop.

SO I don't think Josh was being irresponsible at all, he still stayed in limits of conventional diving.

And pulled up the biggest AJ I ever seen!!


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## LITECATCH

great job man!! sounds like you are doing good in school also! keep up the good work in both.


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## bmoore

Ha "blew off the safety stop" , "too close"...there are probably 1000 things Josh could have done differently looking back and analyzing the situation..but he was there, we were not. He has probably gone over this a million times but two facts remain..

He made it out safely

He landed the fish. A freaking trophy fish to boot!


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## spearfisher

That is a fish of a lifetime!!:bowdown That is definitely a fish that is worthy of mounting. With a certified weight from outcast, and the pictures you could take them to a local place and they can make you a mount from that information. Congradulations on an outstanding fish brother:clap:clap:clap 

P.S. taking a fish like that is a hell of a lot more than just right place right time. You have to have to #1 have the where-with-all to keep your stuff together to put such a good shot on that fish, #2 you have to have the ability to handle that fish once he's on without losing your gun or getting killed yourself, #3 you have to have the gigantic balls to take that shot. Nicely done my friend, nicely done!


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## RiverGulfFshr

Dude that report is about as sweet as it could ever get. I wonder what the AJ was thinking whenhe charged up on you...DINNER:hungry.I guess you showed him who was on the Menu...not you! :clap


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## Ocean Man

Shoot, that was just a baby. They get over twice that big...................

j/k 

Fish of a lifetime pretty much says it all. I dont think I would even want to tangle with that fish on rod and reel. Congrats


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## Clay-Doh

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD class=smalltxt vAlign=top><SPAN id=_ctl1_ctlTopic_ctlPanelBar_ctlTopicsRepeater__ctl13_lblFullMessage>Hey Josh! If you get a mount like they said, dude, you got to give them the spear shaft, you said it got bent anyways, and have them mount it with the shaft in it, sticking out! Right were it went in, and have them air brush a little wound there, and paint some blood on!!!!!! 

Like you just shot it!!!

Then, you can get your enormous churchbell size balls bronzed, and hang them bad boys next to it!!!!!!

:letsdrink:letsdrink:letsdrink:letsdrink</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>


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## Corpsman

Just stick him in the freezer whole till guns n hoses :hoppingmad


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## Caver2130

Nice Fish Josh... I was worried when I heard about it and hadn't seen the monster on the Oriskany in a while. I'll hold out hope that he's still out there!!!! congrats man!


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## mpmorr

Dear God that was a great read, I am more than a little impressed. That bad boy pound for pound was easily twice as strong a you. Thank god and congrats, that took a lot of stones.:bowdown


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## Whitie9688

hell of a fish and hell of a read man! congratulations! i have never in my life seen an AJ or even heard of one that big!

you are crazy as hell man!


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## GrouperNinja

Dude way to shoot the small ones and leave the big ones for seed! Maybe we'll hit p'cola the same time and go shoot some. Till I'm there full time. Good shootin.


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