Whangārei mother Bonnie MacInnes had just arrived at her holiday destination of Russell, unpacked and poured a glass of wine when she got the news her partner Clint Hall had landed his first marlin.
Fifteen minutes later, in a rewind flurry, she found herself and the kids back on the road with loaded car, headed for the car ferry to make the Tutukaka weigh-in.
"It was a random day on Sunday," reflected MacInnes. "The kids and I had a wee adventure planned, just the three of us, to head to Russell for one night. We were there not three-four hours when we got the call that Clint had landed his first marlin with Shamus at the helm and weigh-in was 6.30pm."
After umming and ahhing for several minutes, she asked the kids what they wanted to do.
"The kids were like, 'Let's go!'. So they helped me stuff everything back in the car and we bolted down to Tuts.
"It was the quickest we've repacked up and bailed out on an adventure but we had to see his dream become a reality!"
It was a team effort, said Clint Hall of landing his first marlin.
Hall had headed out with MacInnes' brother Shamus at 4.30am, crossing the Hokianga bar at 7am and hooked the fish at 12.45pm, landing it 30 minutes later.
"It was my first marlin and first time out over the Hokianga bar for both Shamus and I," said Hall.
"It was a team effort with Shamus on the helm making sure we got it up quick enough to release if too small," he said, adding that it was caught on a Bonze BTK lure with a light gauge hook.
After storing the marlin in his old surf bag with ice, they drove the two hours to Tutukaka to have it weighed in.
"They wanted to go to Tutukaka as Shamus is a member there and he knew there was a good smoker guy there," explained MacInnes. "As it happened, he had just left for the day but he came back and Clint ended up signing up."
MacInnes and kids made the 1hr20 drive to the occasion with minutes to spare with Hall's marlin weighing in at 117.4kg.
Shamus MacInnes and Clint Hall at the weigh-in.
While Hall and Shamus were busy cleaning up the boat the following day, MacInnes was clearing out her freezer in anticipation of the smoked marlin.
"I will need recipe ideas as I'm sure there's only so much smoked fish pie and smoked marlin dip we can eat," she laughed, adding that they would also be sharing it round with family and friends.
Hall has been grinning from ear-to-ear, she said. "He's been wanting to catch one of these things for years."
Clint's marlin weighed 117.4kg.
Meanwhile, another Whangārei man also caught his first marlin while debut-fishing in the Hokianga last week, though in quite a different manner.
Spearfisher Kent Remihana usually chases snapper and kingfish but was targeting marlin on Thursday when he landed a 77kg striped marlin first-pop.
"I don't actually own a fishing rod," he said. "We had put teasers along the boat and then spotted the marlin so I jumped overboard."
