Kiwi's giant tuna catch a worldbeater

Donna Pascoe's 411.6kg Pacific bluefin tuna was the largest fish ever caught by a female angler in New Zealand.

Results of Aucklander’s four-hour struggle judged best world record at US awards.

After a four-hour battle with a monster tuna, an exhausted Donna Pascoe didn't need to be told she'd just hauled in a record-breaker.

But she still didn't expect her huge trophy Pacific bluefin tuna, weighing in at 411.6kg, to ultimately win an international plaudit.

The fish, caught last year off the Three Kings Islands at the top of the North Island, was the largest caught by a female angler in New Zealand.

Now a panel of foreign judges have deemed the catch worthy of the prestigious Best World Record award, recently presented to the Auckland woman at the International Gamefish Association Awards in Florida.

Ms Pascoe was blown away to have been chosen from more than 800 other candidates for the award, which covered the 2014 season and took a range of factors into account.

In her case, it was partly the dramatic conditions the tuna was landed in - the winds were blowing about 36 knots and the sea was rough when her reel quickly started shedding line that February morning.

Over the next few hours, she stubbornly fought to bring in the fish, which she at first figured was probably a huge blue or black marlin. It wasn't until it was wrenched in closer to her 17m boat Gladiator that Ms Pascoe realised it was a Pacific bluefin tuna, rarely caught in that area.

American crews at the awards dinner, where she sat beside the association's president, were fascinated by the tale. "Everyone was coming up to me and saying, 'how did you do it?' They could only dream of catching a fish that big."

A fibreglass replica of the 3m tuna will be mounted next week at Westhaven fishing tackle shop W.S Laurie and Co in Auckland.