Angler lands 139kg monster in runabout | Rotorua News | Local News in Rotorua

A Whakatane man was the talk of the town when he reeled in the first place 139kg marlin on his 4.9m boat at the 20K 4Way fishing tournament.

The annual 20K 4Way fishing tournament was held from Friday until Sunday, with 480 anglers from all over the country vying for the biggest striped marlin, snapper or tuna, each worth a $5000 prize.

The number one catch of the weekend was hauled in by David Clark, a 139.2kg striped marlin he managed to heave on to his 4.9m Ruffian boat named Our Boat.

Whakatane Sport Fishing Club manager Wayne Hunt said it took Mr Clark and another man on the boat one hour and five minutes to haul in the marlin, where it then got stuck in the woodwork.

"Their vessel, Our Boat, is just a runabout, it's a little, little boat. When they dragged it in, once the wake took over the bill went straight through the woodwork in the boat and lodged itself in one of the seats never to move again," he said.

"The two guys on the boat did really well to bag that marlin. They can be pretty dangerous, especially if they're green when they come aboard."

Eight striped marlin were caught by anglers in the tournament altogether.

A mixed bag of weather greeted the competitors with a wet and choppy Friday, a sunny Saturday and a bright, but choppy, Sunday.

Mr Hunt said the weather was so rough on Friday that many of the more experienced fishermen became sea sick.

"The Friday was pretty rough out there. We have got a lot of seasoned anglers that fished on that day and a few of them were actually ill. That says a lot about the weather," he said. "A lot of them were anchored up snapper fishing, it was like a washing machine out there."

Despite the choppy seas, Mr Hunt said the tournament had been a success.

"It all went fantastic, I had a good sleep on the last night. The anglers all seemed to enjoy the tournament as usual. A couple of little things need to be ironed out for next time but otherwise it was a very successful tournament. All of the anglers had nothing but praise, everybody did really well."

A total of 55 snapper were weighed in over the weekend, all over 45cm. The heaviest was 9.07kg by Jeff Bakalich from JJ. Five kingfish were caught, the heaviest 32.4kg caught by Dave Asplin from Old Buggers and seven trevally were caught, the heaviest 4.8kg caught by Dave Kahlanberg from Ahab.

Other notable catches were Sheryl Kramer from Black Shadow who tagged and released a marlin and a 10.19kg albacore caught by Pete Scott from Bay Rum.