Remarkable Megafish catch wins Hawke’s Bay man $20,000 prize – but the fish itself could be worth many thousands more

The yellow shirts of the victorious Iarouse and crew after the Megafish 2025 win at the weekend, (from left) Shae Garrett, Anton Rouse, Ian Rouse and Daryl Lincoln.

A Hawke’s Bay fisherman is celebrating a $20,000 win for catching a fish that could have sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars had it just picked somewhere else to be landed.

Ian Rouse, his son and two others were on his aging 6m boat Iarouse (named after he and son and crewmate Anton) when the prized 120.8kg northern bluefin tuna was landed off Bare Island, Waimarama, on Thursday, Day 2 of the four-day competition which attracted over 400 entries.

It’s going on the smoker, but if 61-year-old amateur recreational fisher Rouse had been working as a licensed commercial fisherman, it could have been off to the markets in Japan and possibly fetching over $5000 a kilogram.

The yellow shirts of the victorious Iarouse and crew after the Megafish 2025 win at the weekend, (from left) Shae Garrett, Anton Rouse, Ian Rouse and Daryl Lincoln.

Putting to sea about 6.15am, the fight took over two-and-a-half hours as Rouse played the prey from late Thursday morning standing up on the small boat, which has had multiple owners and is thought to be about 40 years old.

There was no room for the comfort of a game-chair, the belted-in features of bigger boats chasing big game-fish, and no room for any other fish had they landed any more on the day, so they headed for the Nelson Quay competition headquarters to weigh, Rouse said.

Ian Rouse and the 120-9kg northern bluefin tuna at weigh-in on Thursday, starting a two-day wait to see if it would remain top of the Megafish leaderboard.

“It’s one for the little boats,” he said. “That’s why a lot of guys don’t go out that far. The weather’s got to be right.”

So, too, the timing, for back at sea for a two-day waiting game with the name at the top of the leaderboard, the boat did not land another fish. The competition had its best catch numbers in years, with 142 fish weighed and dozens of others caught, in many cases tagged and released or otherwise returned to the sea as unlikely to reach the prize-winning weights.

The 6m Iarouse, just big enough for four fishermen and a 120.8kg northern bluefin tuna – a $20,000 Megafish prize-topper, but worth perhaps $5000 a kg on the commercial fishing market.

It came with a continuing run on yellowfin in the waters off the east coast of the North Island and marlin being caught off the west coast.

Rouse picked up the combination of $10,000 for the biggest by a Heli Ag early-bird entry and the best catch overall, confirmed when the event ended on Saturday, and was also presented with the Coruba Cup and the Blair Pascoe Trophy for the most notorious catch.

The next-biggest catch in the tournament was an 87.2kg striped marlin landed by Chris Hayne aboard Hurricane, skippered by Damien Hayne, while Mandy Leslie’s 93.8kg specimen, landed on Short Corner, skippered by Blair Rossiter, was the first marlin caught by a female club member that ever weighed over 90kg.

Hayne’s effort was enough to claim the billfish prize, the heaviest tuna/spearfish was Nathan Curtis’s 95.4kg big-eye tuna, the albacore section was won by Jeremy Ross (20.28kg), the biggest kingfish was Lee Coers’ catch of 19.53kg, Zane Kinder had the biggest snapper art 8.65kg, Aaron Smith claimed skipjack honours with a catch of 7.28kg and overall Junior honours on the weight-to-species scale were won by Joseph Mooney with a 6.84kg skipjack.