Landbased SBFT caught at Runaway

Fishing is a game of opportunity – making the most of what is presented to you at any given time by being prepared. 

Two Northland landbased fishers, Shanon Scott and Shane Tekiri, know this only too well. Targeting kingfish off the bricks at Cape Runaway earlier in the month, the pair became two of the few Kiwi anglers to catch a southern bluefin tuna (SBFT) off the rocks – landing one each. 

Not far out at sea around where the 1000-metre mark comes relatively close to the coast, boat-based anglers have been getting amongst the winter run of SBFT for several seasons. For some, it has become an annual pilgrimage with Waihau Bay the starting point for many. 

Shanon and Shane’s captures were remarkable for two reasons – the SBFT usually range a little wider and it is rare to find this within casting distance on the coast; and secondly, they were caught on topwater lures – in this case, poppers.

The pair, joined by two Wellington mates Mike Proudfoot and Steve Coburn, were at the cape for six days where they were based at Kemp’s farm. There is a fair bit of effort that goes into fishing this coastline, with a solid hill to negotiate before working your way down the steep slopes to the rugged coast below, lugging all your gear, bait and berley with you. In other words, you earn your fish!

“The first thing we noticed was the blue water was in very close and it gave me the opportunity to have a quick dive to check out the underwater structure near where we would be fishing. The second thing was a workup not far offshore that had left quite an oil slick on the water,” Shanon says. 

Rigging up a popper, their best casting efforts fell short of the still unidentified surface fish. 

“We watched it come and go for an hour and a half or so and despite one hookup, we still didn’t know what they were, other than seeing some quite big silver and white flashes.”

Meanwhile, they started paying more attention to their livebaits, casting lures intermittently to the workup that was still going now after three hours. 

“They came close twice and just as I had slowed my popper on one retrieve to take a bit of a rest a huge fish came and lunged at it, missing and knocking it out of the way.” 

The school was within reach of their lures and they had several follows and misses before both came up solid on  hard-running fish that tested their gear to the max. But the line, trace and knots held before Shane eventually working the fish to within five metres of the shore where they could identify it as a tuna, but what species?

The anglers were able to guide the first fish towards a ledge and a timely swell helped push it within reach. Shanon dived into the water to secure Shane’s tuna and claim one of the country’s first landbased SBFT. Shanon’s fish soon followed suit to complete the double. 

After lugging their prize captures over the hill to their vehicle and then back to base, the fish went 36 and 39kgs respectively. It was iced overnight in chilly bags before being broken down and vacuum-packed to share with friends and whanau in due course.

Interestingly, their host Sally Kemp shared the news with the Waihau Bay club officials whose immediate reaction was, “Nah, it wouldn’t have been a SBFT, they have got it wrong.” The boys want to thank the ‘Kemp House’ hosts Sally and Harriet Kemp for their fantastic hospitality and accommodation. They are legends among the landbased game fishing fraternity. 

Shanon is quick to pay tribute to his good mate and landbased fishing mentor Shane.

“I have only been fishing for kingfish this way for a couple of years with Shane sharing his knowledge with me. We were geared up to handle big kingfish, which was just as well as everything held together in the tuna. It was great that we both shared such special catches together."

Shanon says the fishing was good for the rest of their stay, their group getting among a bunch of kingfish, a number of which were in the 18-22kg bracket (40-48lb). Sadly, there were no more SBFT. 

The two lures that did the business were a Cotton Cordell and a Rapala Xplode 170.

– Grant Dixon