The crew from Pawnbroker proudly stand with their heavy Marlin. Photo / Supplied
A huge striped marlin weighing in at 132.2kg is believed to be the first caught in Hawke's Bay waters in two years.
For skipper Phil Schofield, the wait has been even longer. Tuesday's catch ends his 12-year journey to hook the fish off the region's coast.
Schofield says the group went on his boat, Pawnbroker, with a plan to catch marlin.
"I have personally been trying to catch a marlin in Hawke's Bay for 12 years and in that time, I have hooked and lost four, so it was my lucky day."
The man who reeled in the fish, angler John Botham, said it was 2.5m long and took about 40 minutes to haul in.
"We were strolling about six lures out and three marlin hit the lures. Two hooked up and one spat the lure basically straight away and the other one did probably a 700m run before it stopped," Botham said.
"It did a bit of tail-dancing and shaking its head trying to shake the lure out. Basically, then it was just a dog fight winding it back in. When we got it on the boat, most of the energy had gone out of it, so it wasn't too bad to handle."
Hawke's Bay Sports Fishing Club captain Neil Price said it was rare for a marlin to be hooked in Bay waters, as they only venture this way when the water is warm.
The water off the coast of Napier on Tuesday was 22 to 23C, a Niwa spokeswoman said.
"There is a trough that they come down from the Islands and they just travel up and down that when the water is warm," Price said.
He said it was "always a big thing when one comes in".
"They let us know when they landed it out at sea and they gave us a rough idea when it was coming in. I let everyone know so they could come and see it."
Price said reports were coming in on Wednesday afternoon that a fisherwoman had caught a marlin on Wednesday afternoon - the first to do so in Hawke's Bay.
Schofield will be out again next week with the "Your Solutions Megafish Hawke's Bay" competition in the hopes he can score the $10,000 prize for the biggest fish.
The annual competition will run from Waitangi Day to Saturday, February 9.
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