A potential new world-record black drum was speared by a Florida freediver on Oct. 1, during the first day of the Destin Fishing Rodeo. While spearfishing can be a challenging, lung-busting sport for even the fittest freedivers, 40-year-old Julie Augustine managed to spear the big drum while eight months pregnant, reports The Destin Log.
Captain Joe D’Agostino told the Log that he spotted a school of drum in Choctawhatchee Bay, and called his friend Augustine to see if she wanted to go fishing.
“Do you want to go find a world record?” he asked. Conditions were calm, which meant it would be a relatively easy day on the water for Augustine, who is in her third trimester.
The pair located the school again at a depth of 8 to 10 feet. While visibility was good on the surface, said Augustine, it was much more difficult to see fish once she entered the ocean.
“I couldn’t see the tip of my spear,” she told the Log. Then a drum swam by. “I saw its shadow. In the water and from my vantage point it was a big shadow. So, I took a shot and it was a good shot. I brought it up and I was hoping and praying.”
Rather than using a speargun, Augustine was fishing with a “primitive” 9-foot Bermudian slip-tip pole spear, which has a range of roughly 10 feet. The drum didn’t tear out, and Augustine was able to boat the big fish.
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Suspecting it might be a spearfishing world-record, Augustine and D’Agostino boated to the Destin Fishing Rodeo, which runs from Oct. 1 to Oct. 31. They weighed the black drum on the event’s certified scales at 37.8 pounds.
Augustine is submitting her fish for certification with the International Underwater Spearfishing Association, which manages records for spearfishing. (The International Game Fish Association only keeps records for fish landed with traditional tackle.) The current world-record black drum in the Women’s Sling/Polespear category weighed 36.3 pounds and was speared in the U.S. by Lucie Cardet in 2018. The record black drum in the Men’s division, speared in 2014, weighed 50.1 pounds.
