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 northern bluefin, 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.
