In probably the most Kiwi thing you’ve ever heard, a group of fishermen battled not only a massive tuna but also a ravenous shark.
As the crew struggled to pull the behemoth almost 300kg tuna on board they then had to fight off the shark with a broom as it attacked their vessel.
This all came about when three mates Jay Curley, Michael Baird and Clayton Summerville decided to head out for a fish on weekend thinking nothing of noteworthy, but boy were they wrong.
After setting out to sea from Hoods Landing in Otaua and after snapping up a couple of yellow fins, Curleys was struck by something of biblical proportions.
“I thought it was a big tuna, but it was sort of mythical out there, so I didn’t really say anything,” Curley said.
“After 45 minutes, I got a bit of a look at the fish and then we knew we were on something pretty substantial. It was still probably about 30-40m away so I couldn’t really get an ID on it.
After three and half hours of no sightings of the fish, he could feel the line under his boat.
“I told the boys it was getting sharked,” he said.
Then the shark came for the boat itself.
“The mako actually bit onto the outboard,” Curley said.
“There was a fair bit of screaming and panic on board … there are a few good teeth marks and scratches left.”
The trio had a good go at keeping the fish in one piece but were ultimately unsuccessful.
“I had my hand down the fish’s gob while my friend pushed the mako off with a broom.”
The tuna weighed about 280kg and would’ve set records for heaviest fish caught in that area but ultimately it would’ve been disqualified due to the bite.
Although he was disappointed not to set records he wasn’t too bothered though and was happy to give out the tuna for heaps of people to enjoy.
“There would have been at least 200 slabs, so you could say it could feed 200 people.”
