Rabitech Apex: The Hand of God…

I had been anxiously awaiting the day the box would arrive from our friends in South Africa with our new weapons and when I finally came home to the long brown box I felt as if Christmas had come early. The new guns are just beautiful to look at and the hardware on them is so sturdy and well put together without all the extra BS that just gets in the way of a serious spearfisherman. I rigged up two 7.5 mm shafts and another 6mm shaft and within a few days we had a break in the weather and my cousin and I took off some 30 miles offshore the east coast of Florida to some ledges and Wrecks that we knew would be holding heaps of fish. As soon as we anchored I was in the water with the twin 16mm rubbers on the 140 cm gun cocked and ready to go. Immediately a few dozen Amberjacks in the 30-40 lb range swam up and swirled around me as I made a dive down to 15 meters to meet a pair of giant Manta Rays that were circling the area. Waiting with the camera and gun for a cobia that was never to come I ran out of air and ascended as the rays continued past and out of the edge of visibility. A few dives later with no good pelagics I started making dives deeper as my lungs warmed up and into the murkier waters down below 20 meters. 

Diving down to the top of the shipwreck I lay still amongst the rusted steel and watched as a group of Mangrove Snapper (Mangrove Jacks) each came in turn to check me out. Halfway through my bottom time a keeper came into view and I placed shot at a distance of 4 meters squarely through the shoulder and grabbed the shooting and powered for the surface as he sought to cut me off in the wreck. Reaching the surface, one of the 50 barracudas in the area sped in just as I was getting the 8 kilo fish in my hands and seized my fish around the middle. A kick to the head of the toothy bastard and he let go only to turn right around and grab him again only to get another long fin to the head. 

A few dives later I landed another snapper of the same size and despite seeing a few other monstrous manta rays still no cobia. (yet my cousin had already landed one without me knowing of course.)  Diving deep again I glided down over the edge of the wreck and could see in the distance a good sized Gag Grouper but there were so many schooling spadefish between us that I couldn’t get a clear shot for a full 30 seconds. When the shot finally came the still oblivious fish received a shaft straight through the spine and I merely swam the stoned 16 kilo fish to the surface with a huge smile on my face and great faith in the accuracy of the new gun.  Now that I knew there were big groupers down on the bottom I forgot about the pelagics and made successive 25 meter dives to seek them out. The visibility on the bottom was now only 7 or 8 meters and the hunting was a bit harder as the Gags are a very flighty fish on occasion always just on the edge of your range. Maybe in the past they were. I’d dive down to the bottom and see a big fish turn and fade into the murk only able to see his tail, and just aim two feet in front of it and fire. The hand of God. Besides the first grouper I shot, every other one was at a distance of at least 20 feet and each time the single barb shaft penetrated completely and I was rewarded with a strong fighting fish at the end of the shooting line. 

At the end of the day we had a pile of good fish in the boat and went on to catch a bunch of giant lobsters to top it off. The Apex is everything I was looking for and more. The power and range matches that of any gun I have ever used. As expected, the big gun has kept the Rabitech tradition with the most amazing accuracy even at distance.  The Rabitech world tour has begun. Next stop: Fiji.