Unexpected big eye at White Island

It was a surprise catch for fisherman Grant Hill on a recent trip out at White Island, pulling in his first ever tuna. 

Launching at Ohiwa Harbour with the intention of deep dropping for bluenose, hapuku and gem fish. Grant and his mate had been waiting for a good weather window to get to a new location just past White Island.

“We started fishing around 730am, the conditions were mint,” says Grant. 

“We caught a couple of gem fish, and then I brought in what I thought was going to be a deepwater species. When it got 50m from the boat, the line started going backwards at a great rate of knots, and I thought maybe a shark or something had taken whatever it was I had on.

“About half an hour of fighting it and getting it near the boat a couple times but not seeing it, we thought it had to be a big shark,” he says. 

They finally got a glimpse of it below the boat and realised it wasn't a shark – but didn’t think it was going to be a big tuna. After about 50 minutes, Grant got the fish to the surface and realised what it was – a massive big eye tuna.

“It was my first ever tuna, the boat's first tuna as well, not that we had ever tried before,” Grant says. 

“We were really surprised. When we saw it, we couldn't believe the size of it, it was over 100kg and 1.8m long. When it came to the surface, we thought, oh god what are we gonna do. So we gaffed it and got it onto the deck of the boat, and when it hit the deck we really could see the size of it, so we were ecstatic.” 

On top of the big surprise catch, they caught a few bluenose and gem fish as well, and returned to land very happy. 

Grant, who lives in Taupo and has a bach at Ohope, says they've got some gear to go trolling and will now intentionally go out to get some tuna.

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