Fishing: Saga of lonely battle with swordfish may lead to award

By GEOFF THOMAS

A solo battle with a giant fish is a first for angling in New Zealand and could earn the Auckland fisherman the Old Man of the Sea award.

Eugene de Bruyn is a charter skipper who thrives on challenges, and in his spare time he tows his eight-metre runabout all over the North Island looking for new opportunities. His boat, Sea Genie, is often out of sight of land, battling huge marlin.

But 10 nights ago, de Bruyn established himself as one of the top anglers when he hooked, fought and subdued a 210kg broadbill swordfish while fishing alone off the Northland coast.

Catching a broadbill is regarded by game fishers internationally as the pinnacle of angling achievement. Its scientific name, xiphius gladius, suggests it is a true gladiator of the sea.

Broadbill are often seen lazing on the surface on sunny days, but are rarely caught by conventional methods in daylight because they feed at night in extremely deep water.

In the past few years, broadbill have been caught by anglers drifting baits of large squid or small tuna over sea mounts or canyons up to 60 miles offshore.

But they are so tough to battle on a rod and line that an expert crew are needed and only two known captures have been made from trailer-boats - one in the Bay of Plenty and one off the Manukau Harbour. When de Bruyn decided to drift for broadbill it was the fifth time he had tried, but the first time alone on the boat.

"It was a beautiful, dark night, and I was fishing 14 miles off the coast over the Parengarenga canyon in 600m of water," he said.

"The fish struck a skipjack tuna bait set at 40m down, with a glowing light-stick a metre above the bait.

"I knew it was a big fish, but thought it might have been a large thresher, like one we caught before. It made steady, dogged runs 150m straight down - like a diesel-powered marlin.

"The boat didn't move at all, and it turned into a real slugfest. I had two baits out and it was lucky that it took the 37kg line on a rod rated for 130kg, which I had custom-made."

The fish struck at 10.20 pm, and de Bruyn had it by the boat just after 1 am.

"I was pretty excited when it popped up in my little spotlight and I saw it for the first time.

"When you are on your own you have to be the angler, the wire man and the gaff man. You have to have everything ready."

He placed the rod in a holder, pulled the fish to the boat and struck it with a flying gaff.

"I also put a fixed gaff in and pulled its head on to the transom. There was no way I could get it on board, so it was a pretty freaky four-hour trip towing it to Tom Bowling Bay for the rest of the night, because mako sharks love to eat broadies," de Bruyn said.

The following day he towed the huge swordfish to Houhora, where it was officially weighed.

He has had a broadbill to the boat before, but, he said, "it got away from the wire man. This one was not so ferocious."

Like other anglers, de Bruyn has caught striped marlin on his own, but this catch is believed to be the first time a broadbill has been caught by a solo angler.

"It's a different kind of fishing. There is nobody to yell at when you're on your own."

The achievement has been nominated for the New Zealand Big Game Fishing Council's annual Old Man of the Sea merit award.