charging the boat – which, incredibly, it then repeated
twice more! Matt grabbed some squid and was about
to throw them in the opposite direction to distract it,
but Dave managed to manoeuvre the boat and scare
the whale off.
THE MONSTER JUMPS
The size of my fish was confirmed almost an hour
into the battle when its 1.5-metre-long sword slashed
through the surface, followed by powerful shoulders
that launched into the air. The sound recording at that
moment required some later editing, and all three of
us stared at each other in disbelief, confirming that
this fish was indeed a monster.
With 22kg of drag on the reel, the pressure on my
legs was excruciating, but the thought going through
my mind was, “One of us is going to break – will it be
me or the fish?”
The fish was totally spent by the time I got it
alongside, so there was little chance for its recovery if
released. Instead, we decided to take it home for food.
TOO BIG TO GET ABOARD
We opened the cage door on my 795 Extreme and all
three of us tried for more than an hour-and-a-half to
drag the fish into the boat. Once we realised that we
weren’t going to get it in, I jumped in the water and
tied a noose around its tail, securing the rope to the
boat to stop it from sliding off backwards during the
journey back to shore.
Even at full throttle we couldn’t get the boat up on
the plane, so we trolled back at eight knots with our
enormous catch hanging out the back. We knew we
had a monster onboard, but we had no idea of the
true size of it.
It wasn’t until we backed up to the weighstation and
the fish was being lifted off the back of the boat that
we truly grasped its enormity. We couldn’t believe it
when the scales passed the 300kg mark and still kept
rising, eventually registering a mind-blowing 361kg.
The crowd erupted and there were screams and hugs
with my crew until someone stopped and asked the
question, “I wonder what the world record is?”
A WORLD RECORD!
A phone call soon confirmed that my fish had indeed
exceeded the IGFA Women’s 60kg world record by
16kg. The catch has since been ratified by the IGFA
and is the current 60kg line class world record, but had
I caught it just four days later when the IGFA’s new
backing and topshot rules came into effect, it would
have been recorded as a 37kg line class record instead.
We were blown away again when informed by the
IGFA that my fish is the heaviest swordfish ever
caught by a female angler and is the fourth-heaviest
swordfish ever caught according to IGFA rules.
To watch the TV episode of this catch, visitwww.
youtube.com then search for ‘ADOS Addicted to
Fishing Season 4’ and there you’ll see the episode
titled ‘361kg Broadbill Swordfish Battle’.
That fishing trip certainly had an unexpected outcome
- and was a day that I’ll always remember!
“With 22kg of drag on
the reel, the thought going
through my mind was, ‘One
of us is going to break?’”
Nicky’s fish was far larger than any
of the crew suspected, and despite
heaving for an hour-and-a-half they
could not get it fully aboard.