This fish is just too big to eat

Benny Tan's snapper was so heavy he had trouble lifting it off the ground. Photo / Peter Jackson

Benny Tan did plenty of fishing, and caught a lot of fish in the 30 years he spent in Kaitaia establishing and leading the Abundant Life Church, but he set a new PB last week when he went out off North Cape with Jim Neho.

He arrived home with a 23-pound snapper, caught using soft bait, which is likely to find itself on a wall in Benny and wife Sharon's home in Australia.

Jim, meanwhile, lost a specimen of similar proportions, which Benny suspected might have been his catch's brother. Or father.

"I caught all sorts of fish, and some big ones -- marlin, kingfish, hapuku -- when we were living here, but never a snapper like this," he added as he laboured to hoist the fish out of the chilly bin.

And he rejected the allegation that he was taking it easy while he was in Kaitaia, covering for son Mark, principal of Abundant Life School.

It was true, he said, that Mark did not go fishing on a Wednesday, but that didn't mean he didn't slip away now and again for some mid-week R&R.

"He goes surfing," he said.