"We weren't even sure of the rules for game fishing, and were only expecting to catch snapper and kahawai for a feed."
On the next pass Ivan put the net into the water, hoping to get the fish's bill in the net so he could lift it out of the water.
"When the net touched its bill it woke up and took off like it was saying, 'I'm out of here.' I felt sorry for it and thought: You should be in the big, bad waters north of Auckland.
"Before it headed out and dived we managed to do one last pass and took a short video clip of it," he said.
For the record, the two mates could have legitimately caught and kept the fish, which their video shows to be a juvenile broadbill swordfish. It has a much longer and flatter bill than marlin, which are a different family, and long pectoral fins.
They are the only true swordfish and are regarded by game fishermen as the ultimate prize, proving one of the toughest fighters on rod and line. There is no legal size limit although a 90kg minimum applies for all billfish for record catches and fishing contests.
Unlike marlin, swordfish are a valuable food fish and steaks of the white flesh command high prices overseas; unlike marlin they can be sold legally in New Zealand. The demand is so high that in the Northern Hemisphere fish stocks have become depleted through commercial fishing and the average size of fish caught has declined rapidly.
Stocks of broadbill in our waters are relatively healthy but because they roam international seas they are susceptible to commercial fishers' lines, which are hundreds of kilometres long with thousands of hooks.
Broadbill do not spawn in our waters but migrate here in the winter and are a popular catch for the charter boats, particularly in the North Island.
The fish spend most of the daylight hours in water up to 1000m deep, rising to the surface to feed at night, and their large eyes indicate an existence spent mostly in darkness.
Swordfish are occasionally sighted "sunbathing" on the surface in calm water. Stories pop up occasionally of "broadies" turning up close to shore, assumed to be sick or wounded. One such incident occurred three years ago at Omaha Beach when a lady out walking her dog saw a swordfish floundering in the waves. She used her dog leash to lasso the hapless fish and drag it ashore. That story appeared in fishing media around the world.
More common are reports of marlin fishermen coming across sharks feeding on swordfish carcasses. What happens is a mako shark, which is one of the swiftest and most fearsome of the species, attacks a swordfish and bites off its tail. Unable to swim, the fish becomes prey for the shark and attracts others to the banquet.
Reports of marlin in the inner Hauraki Gulf occur every summer, although a dolphin's dorsal fin slicing through the water at a distance may be mistaken for a marlin.
The body of a large black marlin washed up on a beach in the Firth of Thames a few years ago, and marlin have been sighted as close as the Noises.
It was the prospect of hooking a broadbill which attracted the legendary American writer and angler Zane Grey to New Zealand in the 1920s, and he succeeded in catching the first broadbill caught on rod and line while in the Bay of Islands. Previously the magnificent fish had only been taken with spears while basking on the surface.
The largest swordfish ever taken on fishing tackle was caught off Chile in 1953 and weighed 536kg.
