Is this tournament-winning fish a new Florida record? Local fisherman says it might be

Deep in the Gulf of Mexico Troy von Blankenburg is comfortable with minimal gear in the extreme sport of free diving.

“I don’t even own scuba gear. Almost everything we do is free diving, and we didn’t even bring any tanks on the boat,” said von Blankenburg, whose team Dauntless Outdoors took home first place in the Spearfishing division of the 40th Annual Crosthwait Memorial Fishing Tournament.

“When we were planning on getting together for this tournament we focused on going to deep wrecks where we could get pelagic species. The point structure we wanted to get amberjack, African pompano and permit first, then come in and try to get cobia on some shallower wrecks.”

Pelagic fish, like those they desired, tend to hang up in the water column. Diving on a deepwater spot from 120 to 200 feet means the fish they want could be 40 to 100 feet down, making a breath hold easier. Von Blankenburg can hold his breath for over 4 minutes in a pool or around 2 minutes comfortably while spearfishing.

On tournament morning, the trio of von Blankenburg, Jared DeBlecourt and Josh McCann headed out before sunrise. A three- to five-foot groundswell made the journey slower than normal in their 25-foot SeaVee. It also left McCann and DeBlecourt seasick. But on their first spot, the trio jumped in the water to start the tournament.

“Immediately, permit swam up to us,” von Blankenburg recalled. “There were a few African pompano and small amberjack but nothing big with those. We went every direction around the wreck trying to find bigger fish, but even the permit were about the same size as we find on shallower wrecks.”

They took two permit before leaving for another wreck in search of bigger fish. There, von Blankenburg noticed it was the right decision.

“The other wreck was in the same depth, but immediately we saw a lot more life. The amberjack showed up right away and Josh shot a 73-pounder when he was 60 feet down. I did a drop to 60 or 70 feet and waited a minute, just watching. There were some decent ones then I saw this 10- to 12-inch wide head coming straight at me. It turned sideways in front of me and I blasted him. I swam up to the surface and the fight was on.”

“We were worried about goliaths circling it all the way to the surface even though it was so big. Josh helped me get it up, and that turned out to be my almost 80-pound amberjack!”

A record-setting African pompano?

With two big amberjack onboard, they kept an eye on the water below. The pair had noticed a school of bigger African pompano patrolling the wreck, and von Blankenburg knew the big one he wanted was circling below.

“Josh shot a 37-pound (African pompano,) but I knew I saw a bigger one earlier. I kept seeing it and chasing it around, it was hanging around 90 feet. I took a bit on the surface to get ready and then went to 90 feet. I saw it hanging about 40 feet away and kind of waved at it to get its attention, waiting until it got curious to come over to me. It did and then turned to the side. I shot him right through the pec fin and knew it was going to hold. It wasn’t dead but the sharks around didn’t go too crazy as it fought pretty hard. I didn’t realize quite how big it was at first.”

The big African pompano would weigh in at a staggering 55 pounds. That is bigger than the all-tackle IGFA record, which is rod and reel, by nearly 5 pounds. After adding a 15-pound black grouper and cobia on a shallower wreck, the team would weigh in a massive 600-point total.

“The Florida record diving is around 50 pounds for African pompano. I’m going to get it submitted for the record. I had shot some bigger than 40 pounds before, but nothing quite like that. It was hard to believe just how big it was.”