Donna Pascoe with her 420kg blue marlin. Photo / Supplied
Donna Pascoe with her 420kg blue marlin. Photo / Supplied
Exactly three years after hauling up the biggest fish ever caught by a female angler in New Zealand, Aucklander Donna Pascoe has broken her own record.
Pascoe caught the monster 420kg blue marlin off the top of the North Island earlier this year while taking part in a national competition- and was amazed to find its weight surpassed even the 411.6kg Pacific bluefin tuna she caught in the Three Kings Islands in 2014.
More remarkable was the fact the catch was made on February 20, 2017 - the same date on the calendar that she landed the behemoth tuna.
Pascoe said it was about 7am when the line onboard their boat Gladiator began to peel.
She grabbed the rod out of the holder and made her way to the chair, strapping herself and putting the drag up for what she figured was another bout with a marlin.
"The line wasn't peeling at too fast a speed so I had no idea that it could be anything too big."
But when deck hand Brad Bennetto saw the fish leap from the water, the experienced angler told Pascoe he was going to need his "big boy gloves" to help bring it aboard.
After a 23-minute struggle, Pascoe managed to haul the marlin up - an effort that required the strength of everyone on the boat.
"We have a very long cockpit and the marlin had his tail curled up a bit at the back of the boat and its head was up on the step leading into the saloon."
Back at Houhora, the big fish went up on the scales, registering 420.4kg - a pending New Zealand women's lineweight record and a New Zealand women's all tackle record.
"The record at the moment is 354.20kg," Pascoe said.
The monster marlin took more than 20 minutes to haul out of the water. Photo / Supplied
"No way could I ever imagine catching a fish heavier than my 411kg Pacific bluefin tuna, which was an All Tackle World record as well as the Women's 130lb lineweight world record.
The big marlin even surpassed the 411.6kg Pacific bluefin tuna (pictured) Donna Pascoe caught in the Three Kings Islands in 2014. Photo / Supplied
"I previously had the title of catching the biggest fish ever caught on a rod and reel by a lady angler in New Zealand and now I had broken my own record and have caught the two biggest fish caught by a lady angler in New Zealand, both over 400kg.
"The freaky thing is when I looked at both photos of the fish the catch board had the same date - 20 February. One in 2014 and one in 2017."
Pascoe joked the coincidence made it "definitely" a reason to go fishing on the same date next year.
