My day started as usual with my dog Luci jumping in my bed and licking me with her abnormally long tongue. I got up and walked to the kitchen to cook some eggs before I took Luci for her morning walk down the street.
After walking Luci I got in my aqua green Ford F-150 and drove to my friend, Pharaoh’s house to find out if he wanted to go spearfishing on the boat for it was very calm out. Only about one knot of wind just barely brisling the palm trees. I knocked on his door and he answered the door in his heart covered boxers.
“HAHAHA!!!” I laughed hysterically.
“Shut up Morgan, I’ll kill you” he replied angrily.
“No you won’t.”
He started to get his gear ready for he knew what I was here to ask him. He got his OMER fins and his Mares mask and snorkel along with the rest of his gear in his bag. Pharaoh threw his gear in the back of my truck.
We got to the boat yard rubbing our eyes still trying to wake up. I backed up the F-150 to hitch the boat, a Hewes Bayfisher 18 foot, to the back of the truck. The boat was a perfect size for Bahamas spearfishing. Pharaoh cranked the boat down onto the ball of the hitch. He latched it and hooked the chains, then hopped in the truck.
When we got down to the water it was amazingly calm, the great Atlantic Ocean was glassy, glassy enough to see your reflection in it. You could see the sun just starting to peak over the horizon. I hurried to the boat ramp eager to get out on the water
“Dang! I’ve never seen it this calm before.” Pharaoh said in awe.
“I know, it’s been a while, right, Pharaoh?”
I backed the boat down while Pharaoh sat in the boat ready to dock it. The boat slid off with ease. I pulled the truck up off the ramp and went to park it near the small, old bait shack. I rolled up the windows in case of rain, but I didn’t think it would.
“Snapper Base, Snapper Base,” I heard Pharaoh when I got near the boat, “this is Snook requesting permission to exit the harbor.”
“Roger, permission granted, I want to see the catch when you guys get in,” said the harbormaster, Mike.
I pushed the throttle forward and off we were with a steady pace, 26 knots. I yelled to Pharaoh and asked him where he wanted to go.
“The grouper spot on the outside of the reef by the South Tower,” He yelled back.
I found the spot in the GPS; we were there in about 10 minutes, thanks to the glassy water. I put the boat in neutral and floated up to the spot with little movement and Pharaoh gently put the anchor in the water, so that the fish stayed around this area and were not spooked. The anchor caught the bottom; Pharaoh tied the anchor line to the front cleat and closed the white hatch.
We got in the water with our Hawaiian slings and started to swim calmly, still trying to keep the fish around. The water was insanely clear, possibly 100 feet of visibility. We got over a hole in the bottom; Pharaoh dove with only a few kicks thanks to his new weight belt. He got down there and looked in the hole then looked around the area to try catch any fish swimming to this hole for protection.
“Nothing,” he said with a sigh when he reached the surface.
We continued to swim around the area. We didn’t see anything at this spot, which was unusual. We started to swim back to the boat when I saw something on the bottom that wasn’t there before. I dove down, pulled my sling back when I realized what it was, and aimed. I let go off the spear shaft, “THUNK!” the spear stuck just behind the fish’s gill plate. The massive fish freaked out and swam to the hole that Pharaoh had checked earlier.
Pharaoh scrambled after it on the surface of the water just as I was coming to catch my breath. I pursued him when I reached the surface. Pharaoh dove down much quicker this time, but still calm, in order to maintain his breath longer. He pulled his amber colored sling back and took the shot at the massive Black Grouper. He stuck the fish in the head and the fish freaked and stirred the sand up from the bottom. The hole was murky now.
“Pharaoh stay here and watch the fish were gonna need a pole spear imma go get the Ray Odor.”
“Ok but hurry up I don’t know what this fish is going to do.”
I swam as fast as I could to the boat, jumped in and grabbed the spear. I got back over the hole looking down 35 feet to the bottom. Trying to catch my breath I sat there hoping the sand and blood pouring out of the hole would slow down. After sitting on the surface for awhile the sand and blood didn’t slow down, I dove down anyways. I followed Pharaoh’s spear into the hole and into the fish and I aimed up and to the right trying to get the fish’s brain. I let go of the spear. Forward it propelled and stuck into the fish’s head. I heard grunting but didn’t see any movement from the hole. I pulled on the three spears, nothing, the grouper didn’t move.
“Pharaoh, I brained it!” I said when I got to the surface.
“Nice!”

“Yeah but we’re going to have troubled getting the fish out.”

“Great,” he said with a sigh of tiredness.

He dove down to the hole and pulled and pulled on the three spears. Nothing, the fish didn’t even budge.

“We’re both gonna have to go down and pulled then maybe we’ll get it out.” Pharaoh said.

“Alright, tell me when you catch your breath.”

When he was ready I looked at him and counted to three with my fingers. We both dove down and pulled and yanked on the spears feeling the fish moving closer and closer to us. Finally it was out. It was huge. The grouper was probably 75 pounds. Pharaoh and I had a hard time swimming it up to the surface. We reached the surface both out of breath and breathing heavily. We swam the fish back to the boat almost being pulled under the water.

I heaved the fish up to Pharaoh as he got in the boat he drug it to the fish box in the front of the boat.

“YES!!” he yelled

I gave him a high five still out of breath.

“Look at this thing, its massive.” he said still out of breath.

“I know its huge.”

“Fine with me but I’m hungry, where’s the food?”

“In the dry area where it always is.”

After he ate some chips, he got up and pulled up the anchor line as I slowly idled up to help him pull it up. He put the anchor in the hatch and off we were to the coral gardens, the nickname for the reef behind the Long Rock.
When we got there the wind was just starting to pick up, just a tad. I threw the anchor while Pharaoh put his gear on. Then I started to get my stuff on. We got in the water and the water wasn’t too deep but good enough. The first fish I saw was after being in the water for maybe 30 seconds. I had a feeling this place was going to lead to something good. I started to dive down towards the good sized Hogfish and pulled my Hawaiian sling back, then let the spear go, propelling towards the fish it stuck into its gill plate. I pulled the fish out of the rocks and swam it to the boat. We got a few other fish there and then headed back towards the harbor.
In the harbor we unloaded the fish and people started to crowd around. The people were freaking out about the grouper that Pharaoh and I had shot. They were taking pictures of it. This was easily the biggest grouper that the town had ever seen speared. After all of the chaos, I guess you could say, and we finished cleaning the fish it was getting dark and we were both hungry. At my house I threw some of the filleted grouper on the grill and we both ate like pigs.