Former Northland-based MP Shane Jones has landed some big ones in his time - the Waitangi Tribunal fisheries settlement and a plum job as economic development ambassador to the Pacific, to name a few.
But on Thursday he landed his first game fish, a blue marlin weighing in at 305.9kg and hooked off Motu Kokako/Hole in the Rock in the Bay of Islands.
It wasn't just a day out on the water for the man once tipped as a contender for New Zealand's first Maori Prime Minister.
Mr Jones went fishing at the invitation of fishing charter operator Peter Barry, who is keen to promote sport fishing as an alternative to commercial fishing across the Pacific.
Mr Barry, who ran fishing charters in Aitutaki in the Cook Islands for many years, said a lot more money could be made from sport fishing than by "cleaning them out" with commercial fishing. Because most fish were released, it was also more sustainable.