KEY POINTS:
New Zealand fisherman, Ray "Poppy" Henry, 70, has proven he is not too old for the giants of the deep by catching the biggest blue marlin ever weighed in Australia.
Mr Henry this week took 100 minutes to haul in the 490kg "monster" and now has to work out how to get his catch back to New Zealand.
An experienced fisherman with the Gisborne-Tatapouri Sports Fishing Club, he said he had never caught anything like the mega-marlin.
"It's a monster from the deep, really," he said.
Mr Henry made the catch on a Vanuatu-based game fishing charter boat, Ultimate Lady, at Mellish Reef, about 1000km east of Cairns, on Monday afternoon, the Townsville Bulletin reported.
Captain Tom Francis said the crew had planned to release the fish but it was injured by the boat's propeller.
"We were going to try and let it go but it went under the boat," he said.
"We didn't actually know what it was until right at the end.
"We knew it was a big fish but it never jumped and it was night-time by the time we got it in."
Mr Francis said the blue marlin, caught on the edge of Australian territory, was a milestone for the sport.
"It's good for Australian sport fishing to weigh a fish like that," Mr Francis said.
But Mr Henry's fish will not beat the previous Australian record for a blue marlin 452kg - a fish caught at Batemans Bay in New South Wales - because it was not officially weighed on land.
- NZPA
