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I'm spearfishing in green, murky, disgusting, trash water, right in the heart of one of the most touristy places on earth - downtown Bali - and I'm searching for what might be the tastiest fish in the entire ocean. But in order to understand the significance of this fish and that disgusting green water, we need to go back in time one year to the last time I caught one of these fish.
I was living on this big wooden boat, sailing around a bunch of super remote islands here in Indonesia. These islands are uninhabited and untouched by humans, basically the polar opposite of the overpopulated beaches of southern Bali, which are teeming with tourists, influencers, beach umbrellas, and garbage! Anyways, when I was living on that boat I obviously spent most of my time fishing. I had never seen such beautiful, healthy reefs in my entire life and the water here was crystal clear. It honestly felt like I was in a David Attenborough documentary, which I actually kind of was because apparently his team often films here for their series like Planet Earth, and Blue Planet 2.
Anyways, one day I heard my dive buddy screaming for help. He had just speared a big fish and he needed me to place a second spear into it before it could break free. If it did break free, the injured fish would end up dying somewhere deep in the ocean and probably get eaten by sharks rather than by us! And just so you know, this fish is a mackerel. The ocean here was literally teeming with them but we didn't spear more than we could eat. Having said that, we ate a ton! Their raw uncooked meat is buttery soft and it just melts in your mouth.
Back in northern Bali though, where I currently live, these fish are rare, you almost never see them. There were rumors of people catching big ones down in the southern part of Bali, but this was really surprising to hear because southern Bali is very densely populated, it’s where the airport is, and it's where most tourists spend their time when they visit the island. Although these days, because of current travel restrictions, it looks a bit more like a scene from the walking dead than a tourism hotspot. Anyways, hearing that some of the biggest and best fish are found in the oceans down there, is a bit like hearing that the best bird watching in all of New York state is in Times Square. It didn't make sense and I had to see for myself. But even if I did find mackerel down there, I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to properly catch them, because of that soft flesh, so first I needed to upgrade my gear. Do you know how James Bond always goes to that engineer named Q for whatever gear he needs? Well, Andre Spearguns is my cue! They have a big workshop, where they hand-make spearguns right here on the island and so I had them saw off the tip of my spear and replace it with a slip tip.
I usually spearfish by laying on the floor behind a rock or some coral, hoping to entice some very wary fish to come in close enough for a shot. It requires some stealth and technique, fish are extremely curious and they're usually dying to see what exactly it is that you're doing down there. And so I often try to position myself in a way that forces the fish to come within range, if it wants to see what I'm doing, and when they do, I need to be ready to ambush them before they can swim away. But here you're not supposed to do any of those things! Instead, you're supposed to stand up straight on the sandy ocean floor and just wait there, looking at nothing but green murky water, while hoping that a mackerel swims right in front of your face. And that's exactly what we do all day long, from eight in the morning until six in the evening. It's not the most exciting thing in the world until suddenly I see one and pull the trigger! The fish swims off, but I'm not worried, I can tell that my shop placement is solid and since there aren't any rocks or coral on the seafloor here, I just let the fish swim around as much as it wants, until it eventually gets tired out, at which point I pull it up to the surface, bleed it and bring it! The slip tip did its job perfectly, and my buddy got one as well. As soon as I'm about to grab the fish that I think is stoned, it comes back to life and sprints away, smacking my hand with its tail in the process! It feels like someone punched my hand as hard as they could, I'm not worried though, I know that my shot's good and there's no way that fish is going to escape. I try to grab it again, the same thing, but eventually it tires out and I put it out of its misery. These fish are delicious!