A great start to the game fishing season in Mercury Bay!
With the forecast looking really good, we decided to take our two girls out, Celine is keen to get her first marlin, but it needs to be 5knot variable or less!
We headed straight to the hook. There's plenty of bird life and bait around 120-150 m. We put the lines out at around 9am, just four game lines, and a couple of tyrnos 30II with 10kg on for catching skippies.
Just before 10am one of the lines went off, which I took, as Celine was wanting a marlin, not another skippy!. It was obviously more than a skippy once I hit the strike. I thought it was a good yellowfin, which I have caught on lighter tackle, so prepared myself to take my time. The line is a couple of years old, and the double and leader were short. (The line broke at 7.5kg on the line tester at the weigh station.)
It took around 20 minutes to get to the boat, fortunately Brian grabbed the snapper gaff! and gaffed the fish, as once it was in the line snapped (I think it snagged on something as we were bringing it in!)
Was pretty stoked as it's my first SB spearfish, and on light tackle a lot more fun than when we've caught them on the bigger gear.
After getting it on ice etc, I thought - I wonder if it's near a record - lucky we keep the year book on the boat, and I saw that there is no women's record for SB Spearfish on 10kg.
There's a fair bit of paperwork involved in going for a record, so it pays to be prepared! Also - we suspected the line would be more like 8 kg, but I filled in 10kg on the weigh card - I found out that I would have been best to write 8 kg, and if it did break at over 8, they'd put the line class up. The weigh masters can increase the line weight, but not decrease it. Doesn't really worry me too much, I'm mostly stoked we got the fish in! It tasted pretty good too!
Should be out there today, but a few things to sort out before we head out again!
Thanks to the weigh masters for the extra time it took. Much appreciated!