At a depth of 45 feet, Schuldt stuck the big snapper with 9-foot Headhunter Nomad roller polespear while wreck diving off Nassau. The fish qualified her for the International Underwater Spearfishing Associationâs womenâs world record for the species in the sling/polespear division. It also outweighed the menâs record of 19.1 pounds, which was caught by Jon-Michael Degidio off Grand Cay in 2016.
âAt the end of my breath hold I saw the dog snapper swimming in and out of the wreckage,â wrote Schuldt in a description of the event. âI came back up to the surface and told my boyfriend, Matt, âThere is a world record dog snapper down there.â I took some time to get a good breathe-up, dropped back down into the wreck and got a solid holding shot on the fish. It fought for a bit on the way up, but I was able to clear it from the wreck and get it to the surface. Once at the surface, it tried to bite me and tangled up my float line, but I was able to grab it by the gills and swim it back to my boat.â
Even on a rod and reel, Schuldtâs fish would have been impressive. The IGFA all-tackle world record weighed 24 pounds. It was caught back in 1994 by Capt. Wayne Barder off Abaco.
Check Stephanie Schuldtâs adventures at www.saillaviecharters.com.