A 12-year-old Tauranga girl could not believe her eyes when she reeled a 212kg marlin on to her family boat on Saturday, five hours after the first bite.
Lucy Jensen was out with her dad Chris and older brother Sam, 14, for the Tauranga Game Fishing Club Game On Tournament when she pulled in the winner - and a potential record breaker.
The whopper catch took her about five hours to reel on the 700 metres of line.
The Tauranga Intermediate School student said the effort was exhausting but she was excited by the result.
She had needed help reeling in her first blue marlin catch on Friday after it died so Saturday's catch was the first she could claim as her own. "I just quickly got in the game chair [after the first bite] and the boys talked me through it.