Fishing: 'Smallfry' awaits nod for 227kg blue marlin

Ten-year-old Robbie Angus from Kerikeri has applied for the all-time world "smallfry" fishing record after landing a 227kg blue marlin, adding to a remarkable family record.

He took 50 minutes to get the blue to the boat "Target" out from the Bay of Islands last Sunday and if approved by the International Game Fish Association, once line tests are done, his catch will eclipse the next-best blue of 203kg.

His brother James, 14, holds the IGFA world juniors record for broadbill swordfish for a 177.6kg fish caught on 37kg line at the Middlesex Bank in July. Sister Gemma, 19, has held a juniors world record for kingfish, 28kg on 24kg line, for the past three years.

Dad John has nailed the Snooks Fuller Trophy for most marlin caught by a Bay of Islands Swordfish Club (BoISC) member for the past three seasons. In 2002/03 he recorded 50 marlin, better than Zane Grey's best effort.

The Angus family shifted here from Wiltshire, England, in 2000, John retiring from business in Europe with the sole aim of spending his days fishing in New Zealand.

The week before Robbie nailed his record blue, dad and the boys were fishing at the Three Kings aboard "Primetime", with the aim of securing the world smallfry record for striped marlin.

Robbie caught and tagged 10 marlin of the 18 caught by the boat. Some might have pushed the existing record but they'd made the decision not to keep one unless it was caught late in the trip, so it would keep. The fish caught late in the trip were all too small.

"He's very determined," John Angus said of his son. "He wants to go for the record for a black marlin and all sorts of other fish now."

At the Kings, Robbie had played one marlin for 55 minutes, they'd hooked another as soon as they got moving after tagging it and he'd played that fish too. "He has very good technique so he doesn't tire himself. When we first got here [New Zealand] we spent a lot of time practising with skipjack tuna and yellowfin on light line so the boys know what they have to do."

Robbie saw his brother miss the chance he took. James was 11 when he hooked his first marlin, a 240kg blue which he played to the point where he collapsed in the game chair. John had to wind the fish in, thus disqualifying themselves from any claim.

Since then it's been a carefully targeted operation. "I hardly get a chance at the fishing these days, they beat me to the rod," John said. The family's fishing exploits from the Bahamas to Cairns to the Bay of Islands will be told in a book Confessions of a Billfisher to be published this year.

The team Bay Christchurch II won the NZ Big Game Fishing Council's striped marlin section with 10,880 points from a total of 17 fish caught over the eight days to last Saturday. Ross Millichamp and Steve Sumner each had five stripeys on 15kg line and Gerry Houston seven. Wayne and Carmen McIntyre, Jim Gigger and Mike Harris on "Primetime" were just over 1000 points behind in second.

Top angler honours went to Lloyd Wilkie from Houhora for a 144.6kg striped marlin on 15kg line. The Auckland land-based team of Marty Benson and Richard Brownsword won the snapper section.

The BoISC recorded 20 marlin tagged or landed during the two days of the annual Ladies' Tournament. But strike rate has slowed somewhat and Geoff Stone on Major Tom II believes it may be because they are not hungry. "They've been spewing squid when they come to the boat, they're so full of it."

Stone reports that the big snapper schools have shifted out of the Bay but big fish remain in the middle, with drift-fishing best. There are lots of john dory in the Bay, too, so try a small livebait on the bottom.

Around Auckland the snapper fishing is hot. "I think you'd catch fish on just about any rig with any bait," is how Lance Paniora on Smokin' Reels puts it. The big tides have fired the feeding in heavy current and at slack tide high and low Paniora has been having success with jigging. Straylines have produced the best fish but there are plenty in the 2/3kg range and his charter customers have all been getting limit bags.

The Manukau is full of snapper in the 1.5/2kg range, with lots of throw-backs too. Kingfish continue to school in and outside the heads.