OLD MAN AND THE SEA TROPHY Jarryd Craven - Tauranga Sport Fishing Club A two-billfish day is something to celebrate, but when one of them is a 434.5kg black marlin, that is something extra special. This is what happened for the crew of the Tauranga based launch Esperelle, who went out for a day’s gamefishing on March 6, heading for Schooner Rocks. On board were skipper Vaughan Craven along with son Jarryd and his partner Laura Blair. They arrived in the vicinity of the popular fishing location and noticed the kahawai schools were quite agitated, seeing a couple of billfish rounding up a late lunch. Deploying a couple of kahawai livebaits around the edges of the schooling fish, they had soon hooked, tagged, and released an estimate 160kg striped marlin after a short fight on the 60kg tackle. “While we weren’t specifically targeting a black marlin, we were well aware that this was the sort of situation we could run into one,” Jarryd says. He was not wrong. About 20 minutes after releasing the striped marlin they were hooked up on the black which gave just one initial leap before settling doggedly into the fight. “We were about SO metres off the main rock when we hooked up, with the bottom just 25 metres beneath us. The fish headed straight towards a shallower rock between us an open water, I was sure we would be cut off.” Fortunately, the line avoided any contact with terra firma, although the trace was severely scuffed up along its length. Jarryd says the fish never got more than 100-120 metres out, but stayed doggedly down, proving difficult to raise. They managed to get it up close to the surface and the leader in hand four times, but on each occasion had to let it go again.
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“It was a bit like a decent blue, it kept wanting to head under the boat when we got it close. All it needed to do a couple of times on the leader was turn its head and we would have been in trouble.” With Laura, who had not driven the boat before, on the wheel and Vaughan on the leader, they finally managed to get a gaff in it, but it was not without its heated moments. “I had to apologise to Laura afterward, she was given plenty of ‘firm instructions’, but she had been warned,” Jarryd quipped. The next challenge was to bring the fish on board. They could get its head up on the duckboard and through the transom door, the rigid pectoral fins and its sheer size preventing it from being dragged into the cockpit.
