A Monster Rooster Fish

The day after the La Paz Blue Water World Cup I met up with my good friend John Perretti and his wife Gillmena, after a coffee and a short discussion we decided that we would have a nice easy dive from the shore off the beach at Los Arenas. So John, Gill Patti and I packed the car and headed off to the beach in front of an old abandoned hotel. When we arrived we were greated by a clean white sandy beach and a light offshore breeze. We quickly suited up and discussed our plan as we walked across the sand to the water, to the right of the hotel is a reef that runs out along a rocky point. We decided we would swim the edge of the reef and look for Rooster Fish, as they often ambush schools of small Green and Blue Jacks along the edge. They use the reef as a natural wall to bunch up the small fish then burst through the school devouring any fish within reach.

We would swim the edge and if we encountered a school of bait fish we would allow the bait to swarm around us and wait for a Rooster Fish to burst through the bait. After entering the water we quickly swam out to the edge of the reef and started to follow the edge. Soon I was seeing Cow-tail Rays resting on the bottom and Spotted Eagle Rays cruising along the edge so I decided to film them for a while. While I was filming a big school of Blue Jacks suddenly appeared and swarmed around me. They looked nervous and I could see fresh scars on some of them where they had narrowly escaped being eaten.
I left my GoPro running as I sensed something was about to happen and sure enough 3 big Rooster Fish burst through the Jacks. I quickly picked what I thought was the largest of the 3 fish took a deep breath and started to dive. As I dived another even bigger Rooster Fish burst through the school and turned broadside to me before starting to swim away. I quickly lined up with my 1.4mt Rob Allen and took the shot, planting my shaft solidly in the fish. The fish instantly threw up its comb then dropped it again and took off on a screaming run over the sand. I let it have line from my reel and yelled to John that I had a big Rooster Fish on.
The fish ran extremely hard for about 5 minutes then started to tire and I slowly gained line on it. as I swam up my line keeping an even pressure on the fish it slowly came into view. It got bigger and bigger as I got closer until I was able to slide my hand into it's gills. It was only then that I realized just how big it really was. It was an absolute monster well over 30kg, I could not believe the size of it.

John, Gill and Patti all congratulated me on the size of the fish as I swam it to the beach and carried it up the sand. John did the honors and took photos for me as I struggled to hold up the fish. We cleaned the fish and packed it on ice to keep it fresh then packed away our gear and got dressed. We were exuberant and John asked if we would like to go to a nearby restaurant called the Giggling Marlin for a late lunch. We decided this was a great idea and had a nice relaxing, well deserved lunch and celebratory drink.
All too soon it was time to head off and say goodbye to John and Gill, all the while I was thinking of what John and I will get up to next time we get together, we always seem to have the craziest adventures when we get together like the time we camped on an island and were eaten alive by bugs, but that is another story.