We hate to be seen to be trotting out the old line about "you're going to need a bigger boat" but sometimes the sheer size of a fish leaves you with no other choice.
Spear fisherman Jaga Crossingham, originally from Kempsey in New South Wales, astounded social media users during the past week with a monster wahoo catch off Fiji, where he now lives.
According to Freedive Fiji, where Crossingham is a skipper, the fish is a new Fiji record at 57 kilograms for wahoo, which are found worldwide in tropical and subtropical seas, including off the north coast of WA.
Crossingham's whopper got significant online traction this week when it was shared by Cayman Islands spear fishing guide Cameron Kirkconnell. The jaw-dropping photo - which on Kirkconnell's Facebook account has 1700 likes and reactions and more than 660 shares, plus some 5000 Instgram likes - drew a mixture of awe and scepticism.
"Look at his right hand next to the buoy. This guy has like 1m forearms...#photoshopped," one non-believer commented.
"That is the biggest wahoo I have ever seen. Weight?" a less cynical commenter asked.
"Tell me that is not a new world record! It has to be!" another said.
With Wikipedia suggesting wahoo could grow as big as 83 kilograms, that last suggestion is perhaps unlikely but one thing is for sure - just about the only thing matching the size of Crossingham's catch was the corresponding spike in Kirkconnell's Facebook following over the course of the past seven days.
A wahoo-sized pick-up in Cameron Kirkconnell's Facebook following. Photo: Facebook
And for the doubters, a few of the other photos from Crossingham's fishing adventures would seem to indicate the one that didn't get away, may really have been that big.
A photo posted by Freedive Fiji Charters (@freedivefiji) on Jul 19, 2015 at 6:31pm PDT
A photo posted by Freedive Fiji Charters (@freedivefiji) on Nov 25, 2015 at 8:57pm PST
