Fishing: Four-hour struggle to land NZ record black marlin

By Geoff Thomas

Gone Fishing


A monster black marlin caught off Northland last week is one of the largest marlin ever caught in this country.

It took nearly four hours for Auckland angler Andrew Connor to bring the fish to the boat after it had dived to the seabed and died.

Connor was fishing on charter skipper John Going's boat Delray, out of Tutukaka, last Friday evening when the marlin struck.

"It was about 5.30 and we were going in for a snapper fish when the marlin took a lure, which Andrew had made himself, as we went over the Taheke Reef [off the Cavalli Islands]," Going said.

"We had him jumping and almost had him at the gaff after 35 minutes, but he just took off slowly and went down and away.

"Fortunately it was not too deep, about 150 metres, but it was do-or-die getting him up again. Thank goodness he took the lure on a 130kg rod, with 37kg line, because at times the line was touching the rod between the rollers."

Going said he used the extra-heavy rods when fishing in Tonga, where big blue marlin hooked in deep water required such heavy tackle.

"Once we got him coming up he must have unravelled. He would have rolled around the line because the trace was scratched, but once he started he came up head first."

Going said the sea was "pretty slopping" and the crew could not pull the huge fish into the boat.

"So we put a couple of tail ropes on him and took off for Whangaroa before any sharks turned up.

"It was nearly 9.30 at night, and there were people lined up on the wharf cheering as more and more of the fish came out of the water."

The black marlin weighed 430kg, which is about 946 pounds, and has been lodged as a national record claim, beating the existing record for 37kg tackle by nearly 6kg.

The largest black marlin recorded in our waters weighed 444kg and was caught on 60kg tackle off Whakatane.

The heaviest marlin of any species recorded in New Zealand waters was a blue marlin of 456.8kg.