Black Marlin legend Brian Firman

The name Brian Firman has become permanently linked to what is probably the most publicised black marlin catch in New Zealand. Even though it was caught in 2001, he still gets people shaking his hand and congratulating him to this day!

Brian was fishing the Bartercard Tournament as a guest of the ENL team on board charter boat Striker, skippered by the legendary Bruce Smith. By pure chance they had a TV crew on board filming a documentary on the event.

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The fish was hooked up near The Hole in the Rock on a bridlerigged skipjack tuna bait. Other boats in the vicinity were after the same fish, but were using kahawai.

The 406.1kg fish took 1.75 hours to boat on 37kg breaking-strain line. By the time they got back to the weigh-station, a huge crowd was there to see the fish.

“It was all over the TV news that evening,” he laughs.

Brian directly attributes the catch to the help of his teammates Mike Hodson, Earle Bond and Neil Anderson, and the valuable expertise and knowledge of Bruce Smith.

“A true team fish catch!” he said.

Brian started his fishing career as a boy, spinning for kahawai with his dad Ray off the Westshore Bridge.

“I can clearly remember the first one I ever caught!” he said.

He then moved to boat fishing with Ray before buying his own boat at the tender age of 13 – a small dinghy with a 9.8hp Mercury motor.

Besides the black marlin, many catches and trips stand out in Brian’s mind. He particularly enjoyed a number of expeditions to Greymouth in pursuit of large bluefin tuna. His best catch of this species was 246kg.

One of his crew, Wayne Bicknell, caught a world record 302.5kg bluefin on 60kg breaking-strain line.

“We were so keen, we just left my boat down there and went back out again and again,” Brian said.

Brian’s favourite fish to catch though, is the hard fighting yellowfin tuna.

“They really are a spectacular fish to catch!” he commented.

His biggest yellowfin was a 54kg specimen on 8kg breakingstrain line caught in Hawkes Bay. Captured in 1999, the catch was made all the more remarkable due to the heavy sea conditions at the time. His record stands today.

This is not the only line-class record Brian holds. He fondly remembers catching a 115.5kg mako shark on 4kg line in 2002. This fish was also taken in Hawkes Bay.

Brian has fished the New Zealand Sport Fishing Council Nationals for many years with the same crew of Rod Cushing, David Firman and Neil Weber, often achieving a high level of success.

Two boat deliveries also stand out in Brian’s mind. The first was a 10-metre alloy boat they drove from the Bay of Islands to Norfolk Island. This trip took 25 hours.

The second was a 65-foot Ekman 65 Powercat, which he took from the Bay of Islands to Brisbane, Australia. This trip took three days. Brian has his Commercial Launchmaster Certificate. Brian believes that businesses need to embrace the internet and its selling power in these modern times.

“The internet provides significant threats to businesses, but also offers huge benefits and strengths,” he said.

He told me they sell huge numbers of their Profile Boats through internet sales – far more than off the floor. Brian sees shop retailing becoming less relevant in the future, while internet sales become the main income stream. In fact, Brian envisages a time when businesses will only need a warehouse in an industrial area.

“They would save huge money by not having an expensive retail outlet, not to mention the additional rates and maintenance!” he said, adding that the consumer would benefit with cheaper product, too.

“The big growth for us has been the Profile Boats and the service side of the business,” Brian states.

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Firmans Marine Centre employs 15 staff and Profile Boats another 15.

He also believes that to survive these days, businesses need to be part of a strong buying group and embrace social media. In 1988, Brian started a buying group with three other boat dealers.

This group was called Marine Link Merchants and operated under the Boating and Outdoors banner. The group now boasts a total of 23 stores nationwide, passing on good savings to consumers.

“Our retail sales remain very good,” Brian said. “A lot of buyers still like to see and check out the product for themselves. When they buy direct from us, we provide as much instruction as they need to be able to use the product properly.”

Brian becomes very serious when it comes to talking about the worldwide decline in fish numbers. He is especially concerned about Hawkes Bay.

“We just cannot sustain the present harvest rate!” he says. Brian believes the inshore fishery has been hit far too hard by the commercial fleet. He refers to the 10-year ramp survey carried out by Colin Murray from the Hawkes Bay Sport Fishing Club.

Hawkes Bay Sport Fishing Club members were surveyed when they returned from a day out fishing, noting: the fish caught; the time it took to catch them; and the numbers of fishers involved. It showed a drastic reduction in the catch per person per day.

“Groper is down 82%, snapper down 53% and gurnard down 40% – just as examples!” Brian said. “This is a massive decline!”

(I personally believe that this survey was well conducted and shows the true position of the Hawkes Bay fishery. Commercial interests and their government buddies try to fob it off as unreliable ‘anecdotal’ evidence, but really this is the only strategy they can use against some very damning evidence.)

Brian believes that any catch reduction must come from commercial harvest.

“The estimated recreational catch is between 3% to 6% of the total harvest, so any reduction from here would be almost pointless!” he says.

Brian’s remedy would be to move the commercial fleet outside the 12-nautical-mile limit.

“There would have to be a few exceptions – for instance, flounder fishermen,” he said. “Can you imagine what the inshore fishery would be like after only a couple of years?”

Having said that, Brian believes that recreational fishers still need to fish responsibly to help ensure fish are available for future generations.

Brian is a staunch supporter of LegaSea, as every recreational angler should be. He likes their goal of improving the recreational fishery and the way they are seriously challenging the very cosy relationship between the government and the commercial fishing companies.

Brian talks quite fondly of how far the company has come since his grandparents started up as Firmans Service Station in the late 1950s. They then moved into caravan sales in the sixties.

The early seventies saw the start of Firmans Caravan Centre after the sale of the service station. They were then awarded the Mercury Outboard and Parkercraft franchises – and Firmans Marine and Caravan Centre was born.

The caravan side of the business was eventually sold, leaving the Firmans Marine Centre of today. Brian has been the sole owner of the business since 2000.

“At one stage my brothers Gary and David and sister Sandra were all employed by the company,” Brian said. “I’m also the sole director of Profile Boats.”

Brian has two children, Adam (26), in London, and Lana (24), in Melbourne.

“They’re not mad-keen on fishing, but they like to head out fishing with me when they come home,” Brian said. Besides loving recreational fishing, Brian also enjoys bow hunting.

“I find I’m spending more and more time with the bow now,” he said.

While doing the interview, I couldn’t help noticing the number of customers heading for the new Profile Boats 635H Limited model on display in the showroom. This immaculate unit is the present pride of the Profile Boats fleet.

   This article is reproduced with permission of   
New Zealand Fishing News

March 2017 - Bruce Basher
Re-publishing elsewhere is prohibited

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