Allan Davies and the 116.2kg southern bluefin tuna back at the Hawke's Bay Sports Fishing Club as dusk starts to settle on the big day and the big fish. Photo / Paul Taylor
Allan Davies and the 116.2kg southern bluefin tuna back at the Hawke's Bay Sports Fishing Club as dusk starts to settle on the big day and the big fish. Photo / Paul Taylor
Allan Davies reckons that at age 66 he can retire with a smile on his face after a dream catch of a 116.2kg southern bluefin tuna, possibly the biggest caught off the Hawke's Bay coast.
Landed aboard David Smith's First Edition and initially believed to have been the rarer northernbluefin, it was a record southern bluefin for the Hawke's Bay Sports Fishing Club, beating the previous record landed on June 10 last year aboard the same boat, a specimen of 100.4kg hooked by club member Shane Brooker.
While varying in appearance from two other southern blue weighed when First Edition berthed about 4pm, club president Neil Price said after further research it was found to be also the bluefin more common to the southern Pacific.
It was the biggest the Hastings man has caught, of any species, in more than 20 years of sports fishing.
He said after weighing at Hawke's Bay Sports Fishing Club about 4.30pm he would have been happy enough if it had just been a 35kg qualifying pin fish, on the two-day trip with Smith and fellow crew Aaron Smith and David August.
It took all four to get the northern blue aboard, and Davies put the triumph down to "a good skipper, a good crew, and good gear".
They'd put to sea about 6am on Wednesday, barely expecting the array of extra passengers for the trip home, with Aaron Smith landing a 68.2kg southern bluefin, and August landing a specimen of 41kg.
