Whopper kingfish speared at Waihau

Blair Rolinson with a mighty catch. Picture supplied

Wellington spearfishing enthusiast Blair Rolinson didn’t expect to catch a kingfish weighing 24 kilograms (gutted) while holidaying on the East Coast.

Blair was spearfishing off the beach around the rocks at Waihau Beach when the kingi swam past him.

“I was in about 10 to 15 metres depth, shooting butterfish and catching a few crays,” he said.

The large fish veered off and swam away, so Blair used a spearfishing hunting technique of “strumming” the rubber on his spear gun to send out vibrations and attract the kingi’s interest.

“He came back towards me, I took aim for the gill plate, missed but hit mid-body . . . then he took off.”

Blair uses a one-metre roller gun with a 50-metre reel.

Holding on tight to the clamping line, he was dragged out to sea another 15 metres.

Blair tried to keep tension on the line while the kingfish headed to the bottom of the sea floor.

“After a few minutes I was able to get him under control and I got closer to the fish.

“I quickly used the knife to his gill and threaded him to the float line.”

At a decent distance from his hefty catch and not wanting to attract any sharks that might be in the vicinity, Blair headed back to shore.

It wasn’t ideal to be out there alone, he admitted, although he did have spotters watching him from the beach.

Blair has “a bad back” so couldn’t carry the fish in its full state back to his holiday house.

He gutted the fish at the water’s edge, hoisted it on his back and, “like the man,” headed back where the “kids came down to have a look”.

Blair, an electrician by trade, was holidaying at Waihau Pacific Retreat, along with his wife — Rachel McGrath — extended family of in-laws and his children Hunter and Ocean.

Four-year-old niece Indie Mae “was fascinated” with the large fish, he said.

This is the second sizeable fish Blair has caught in his over 20 years of spearfishing.

The previous was also caught on the Coast, — a yellowtail kingfish weighing 26 kilos.

His usual hunting grounds are on the south coast of Wellington and in and around Wellington harbour where he and his family reside.

Soy and honey marinated steaks were on the menu — “you have to fry it really quickly,”  Blair advised — along with sashimi — a Japanese delicacy of thin strips of raw fish.

“We always share the catch around,” Blair said. “It tasted delicious.”