Fishing in Hawke’s Bay: Warm seas and marlin marvel a boon for Megafish

Organisers of Hawke’s Bay’s biggest annual fishing contest are hoping there are even better things to come after a dramatic early-summer of unprecedented marlin and yellowfin tuna catches.

The Hawke’s Bay Sports Fishing Club’s four-day Megafish 2024, which dates back 46 years to the founding of the Coruba Shark Hunt, starts on January 31 and ends on February 4, heralded by the recording of 17 striped marlin caught or tagged and released this summer along with the weighing of six yellowfin tuna.

It included three during the club Ladies Day weekend, one hooked by a 10-year-old boy, club committee member, Megafish co-organiser and Hunting and Fishing store manager Dylan Woolhouse saying the number of marlin is “probably” more than recorded previously in a whole season.

Most, of smaller size – the minimum Megafish requirement is at least 90kg - have been tagged and released, but the yellowfin, particularly rare in Hawke Bay, have seen good-sized fish weighing up to about 50kg.

The increasing numbers have been put down to warmer ocean currents, recently reported as a “marine heatwave”, and attracting species further south than normally expected, to the point where Woolhouse says that, short of a southerly storm, more and bigger can be expected in the next few weeks, possibly including blue marlin and black marlin, which have been only rarely seen in the region.

In Megafish, the top prizes are decided on a weight-to-species scale, but in 2022, when an increasing number of marlin were being seen in the Bay, the major prize went to Gisborne angler Leon Lewis for a blue marlin weighing 235kg, less than a month after a Hawke Bay record 242.2kg blue was caught just off Cape Kidnappers.

The catch alongside The Dogfather II.

The New Zealand Sports Fishing Council record for blue marlin 492.4kg for a 2020 catch off Cape Runaway, for black marlin a 2002 catch off Gisborne tops the list a 473.2kg, the biggest striped marlin it records was 224.1kg for a 1986 catch off Tutukaka, Northland, and the heaviest yellowfin tuna was 95kg caught off Whakatane in 1984.

The heaviest catch in the history of the Napier tournament was a 417kg pre-Megafish mako landed in 1999.

The tournament has attracted about 550 entries, with almost 150 boats expected on the water, chasing the major prize worth $20,000 for the best catch, while more than $22,000 is up for the boat recording the most tagged and released fish.

The conditions have also been a boon for the club’s December 23-March 30 marlin jackpot, which offers cash for the heaviest catch and for the boat with the most tagged–and-released marlin.

Doug Laing is a senior reporter based in Napier with Hawke’s Bay Today, and has 50 years of journalism experience in news gathering, including breaking news, sports, local events, issues, and personalities.