The special events
that stay with us
for a lifetime
ADAYTO
REMEMBER
The day of the big bluefin
Inmid-Julylastyear,arunoflargesouthernbluefintunaappearedoffthenorth-
easterncoastofNewZealand’sNorthIsland.Neverbeforehadsuchlargenumbers
ofhugebluefinbeenseen.Thisfireda‘tunarush’asanglersclamberedfortherare
chance to catch a giant. Jed Radaly and Josh Holmes were there to join the action.I
n preparation for a tournament at Waihau Bay the
next day, we launched at 10am for an exploratory
trip to see where the action was. While setting
up, Josh and I discussed the phenomenal run of
southern bluefin and agreed that if we hooked one we’d
keep trolling and try to hook another – at least until the
line got thin on the reel.
Bang! We were hooked-up, and according to our
plan we kept trolling, watching the line pour off the
reel as we waited ... and waited. More and more line
streamed into the water, and as the angle changed it
started crossing over the shotgun lure out the back.
Josh picked up the shotgun outfit and started winding
it out of the way, which is exactly when a huge tuna
slammed it in one of the most awesome, explosive
strikes we have ever seen. We were hooked-up to a
double-header of big tuna.
For fish like these we needed a person on the wheel
at all times, so decided to leave the first rod where it
was in the rodholder until after Josh had caught his
fish. The second tuna would not count for competition
fishing, but we were more concerned with landing the
fish we’d just watched cream that Red Gill lure.
Josh had his hands full and it took me a little while
to clear gear in the sloppy conditions, so it was a while
before he was able to get a gimble and harness on. By
then, his fish was down deep below the boat.A NECESSARY SACRIFICE
We were fishing 60kg line over a 37kg custom Radaly
rod, but after 30 minutes on 20 to 25kg of drag, Josh
still had a tough battle on his hands. We knew it was
a special fish, so made the tough call to lose the other
tuna so I could manoeuvre the boat and concentrate
on catching at least one of them. I gave slack line to
the other fish, then came tight, then slack – until the
hook fell out.
Josh went to work, but it still took him 45 minutes
to bring his fish to the boat. Once on the leader, the
tuna made very fast pin-wheels around the transom,
which made it hard to keep the line off the gunnel.
Then suddenly it was boatside and Josh had dropped
his rod, picked up the fixed gaff and pinned the fish
with a solid gaff shot.NOW WHAT?
Not knowing what we were going to hook, we were
unprepared for such a huge fish. We had no flying
gaffs, no tail ropes and no pulley system to bring suchAUTHOR & PHOTOGRAPHY:JED RADALYa fish aboard. Josh did a mighty job holding the big
tuna on the fixed gaff as it thrashed so violently that it
broke the hook as it held tight to the leader. I quickly
switched to a hand gaff, and then we both hauled
together to lift the enormous weight out of the water
and over the gunnel – but it was too awkwardly heavy.
We heaved and pulled for 45 minutes before giving
up in defeat. It was simply too large for the two of us
to get aboard. Eventually we got assistance from a
passing boat, with a crewmember transferring across
and helping us to pull the fish onboard. Even then it
took two attempts.
It was a great relief to finally have the fish on deck,
and after some well-deserved congratulations we set
off for port. Usually we would clean and bleed our tuna
at sea, stuffing its gut cavity full of ice to cool it down,
but this fish was obviously one to weigh.
At 2pm we had it on the scales, and at 143.2kg we
were told it was the largest southern bluefin tuna for
the season so far.!Last winter’s
extraordinary run of
southern bluefin off
north-eastern New
Zealand produced
many special catches,
including this 143.2kg
tuna for Josh Holmes.“We were
hooked-up
to a double-
header of
big tuna.”
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