Six Hawke's Bay fishermen with a range of experience dating back as much as 40 years have come home from a weekend jaunt with the biggest tuna ever caught by rod and line and landed in Napier after a once-in-a-lifetime weekend off the Hawke's Bay coast.
The southern bluefin weighing 83.2kg was caught between Hawk Sea Valley and the Ritchie Banks about 20 miles east of Portland Island on Sunday afternoon by Wahoo skipper Wayne Bicknell.
It smashed the record for the biggest tuna landed at the Hawke's Bay Sports Fishing Club where it was weighed-in the dark about five hours later and in front of about 100 people who had gathered as news of the catch and the boat's ETA of 6pm spread among club members.
More than double the previous club record, set during the three-day Megafish tournament in February, it was one of three club-record fish boated on the voyage.
The others, both caught on Saturday, were a 24.8kg blue nose from the deep as much as 300 metres below and boated by Mr Bicknell's brother, Dave, and a 12.4kg gemfish caught by Gavin Kean.