Here in the birthplace of modern spearfishing, where a storied group named the San Diego Bottom Scratchers established the sport in the 1930s, a young man has speared the biggest fish ever off our coast.

Blue Marlin caught with a speargun by Joel Smith (left), said to weigh in at 413 lbs. Photo courtesy Joel Smith

Joel Smith, 33, a doorman at the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel in Downtown San Diego, who is 5-foot-8, 170 pounds, speared a 413-pound, 12-foot blue marlin. He was diving under a kelp paddy while diving an estimated 25 miles west of San Diego. Smith did this on Sept. 2, but kept it quiet because he feared negative reaction. He was interviewed Sunday on veteran outdoor radio host Phil Friedman’s show, and a friend of Smith’s posted his catch on Facebook. The interview with Friedman now is on YouTube, and Friedman said the negative comments have been minimal. It helped that Smith had the fish processed by Point Loma Seafoods and that he received his batch of smoked blue marlin on Monday.

Like an ethical hunter, he and other family and friends are eating what he shot.

“In my 30 years of covering fishing this absolutely is the most incredible story I’ve ever heard,” Friedman said. “To come face to face with a 400-pound blue marlin and take a shot at it, get dragged through the water once and then water ski behind it a second time is incredible. It’s right out of Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea.”

The San Diego Freedivers Club lists spearfishing records for members that include a 343.8-pound black marlin and a 273.8-pound yellowfin, fish likely shot in Mexico or foreign waters. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife keeps angling and spearfishing records, but the marlin categories are blank. The Florida-based International Underwater Spearfishing Association also keeps records, and their top fish is a 664-pound blue marlin.

413-pound blue marlin caught

“Most of our records on big fish are shot in places like Mexico, Brazil, Panama or Polynesia,” said Andy Ansin, president of the International Underwater Spearfishing Association. “That’s a fish of a lifetime, for sure, and to be taken in U.S. waters and not foreign waters is something to be proud of.”

Told that he has carried on a San Diego waterman tradition that started nearly 80 years ago, Smith said: “It’s a real honor to know that I’m part of something like that. I just feel fortunate to live here in this awesome place. And to even be mentioned with a group like that really is an honor. The best part of all this is I got to share this with my dad. He taught me everything he knows about being a waterman.”

Smith shared his fishing story.

He said he was hook-and-line fishing for dorado and yellowfin tuna under a floating kelp paddy when he decided to help Jaden Jeter, his friend and owner of the 23-foot center console boat they were fishing on, realize his dream of spearing a dorado.

“Within a minute of getting into the water, he took one shot and got his first dorado,” Smith said. “We were super stoked. That right there would have made it a great trip.”

Smith reentered the water and waited for the fish to reassemble. He saw a few small tuna gather under the floating kelp so he submerged for a shot. That’s when this little angling and spearfishing trip for dorado and tuna went big game.

“I was going to take a shot at the tuna when I saw something coming straight up under me like a missile,” Smith said. “I could see it was a big marlin, and as soon as it saw me, it made a 180-degree turn toward me. But it stopped and postured up as if to say, ‘I’m the apex predator here, and you’re too close to my lunch.’”

Smith said everything went into warp speed as the marlin went broadside from him at 10 feet. His biggest fish ever with a speargun was a 100-pound yellowfin tuna he shot off Puerto Vallarta, so Smith had experience shooting big fish. But this fish was four times that one.

“It presented the perfect shot, and I decided to take it,” Smith said. “I hit it one foot between the eye and the lateral line. I knew I either stoned it or spined it. It went limp and floated belly up. But before I could do anything, it woke up. He took off and towed me. At that point I figured I just knocked him out.”

When the fish stopped again, Smith could hear his father, Andrew, yelling for him to swim as hard as he could to the boat. He did, and was five feet from the boat when the marlin came to and swam off with him again, this time, Smith was waterskiing behind.

“That’s probably when I was scared the most because I know marlin can attack, and I remembered reading about a spearfisherman who was killed by a swordfish,” Smith said.

But the marlin stopped one more time, and this time Smith swam with all he had left and made it to the boat. His father gaffed the line attached to the marlin.

“I figured that was my last chance to get him because he was getting stronger and stronger,” Smith said.

Smith, his father and Jeter traded off hand-lining the fish into the boat. Smith said he did most of it while Jeter continually chased the fish with the boat. After what Smith estimated was 2½ to 3 hours, they boated it, dragging it over the stern after getting it on the swimstep.

“We were lucky because if there had been any kind of swell, we would have sunk the boat,” he said.

On Monday, Smith picked up over 150 pounds of smoked blue marlin that he said is the best smoked fish he’s ever eaten. On Tuesday, he was back to work at the front door of the Manchester Grand Hyatt, his Gil Gacula speargun tucked away, his day-job uniform back on. This is a doorman with a great fish story.