Rare landing of a broadbill swordfish off Hawke's Bay coast

Sam Christiansen unloads the 199.5kg broadbill swordfish for weighing at the Hawke's Bay Sports Fishing Club. Photo/Doug Laing

As a boat doing its job the 7.5 metres Optimum proved right up to the mark for father and son fishing combo Dave and Sam Christiansen with the rare landing of a broadbill swordfish off the Southern Hawke's Bay coast yesterday.

"We got what we wanted," said 35-year-old Sam Christiansen, after a 120km drive to Napier to weigh the catch, because there were no suitable scales at Blackhead Beach where the catch was landed after a morning fishing trip which lasted barely three hours.

"We were after the broadbill," said Dave Christiansen. "We've never caught them before. We hooked one last year, but we lost it."

Sam Christiansen at the weigh-in. Photo / Warren Buckland

Carrying-out a "courtesy-weigh" at the Hawke's Bay Sports Fishing Club, before the fishermen headed back to Blackhead to cut up the catch, a club member said he'd never seen a broadbill weighed in almost 30 years with the club.

Club administrator Ken O'Keefe could not find a record for the deep-water species, although both said it's possible broadbill had been landed by non-members, as was the case with yesterday's catch which weighed 199.4kg.

The giant broadbill is laid out of the wharf. Photo / Warren Buckland

There have been sparing reports of broadbill catches by anglers in New Zealand over the years, the latest a 141kg specimen landed by two Gisborne fishermen last week.

While others may have been caught by commercial vessels, at least three have been reportedly caught by anglers off the New Zealand coast in the last five years, including a World women's record catch of 361kg off the Bay of Islands two years ago. The record for all broadbill catches is 536kg, landed off the coast of Chile in 1953.

Onlookers marvel at the catch. Photo / Warren Buckland

Father and son put to sea off the beach at Blackhead about 7am yesterday, heading straight for popular fishing area the Maddens and it was about 8.40am, fishing in about 800 metres of water, when the broadbill, coming off the bottom to hunt for food, began battling for its piece of frostfish on the end of Sam Christiansen's line at about 320 metres.

They were worried about the protruding metre-long sword of the bill as the fish was played alongside the White Pointer craft, but there were few problems. "It wasn't too bad," Sam Christiansen said.