22/08/2026
Not sure we'll top this for a while... Or ever.
Staff member Josh got the invite to head out with Will and John out of Greymouth aboard the epic rig Prime Time this week. To call it a trip of a lifetime is an understatement!
She's a bit of a read but here's the adventure from Josh's perspective!
After a textbook bar crossing and steam out to the trench, followed by a quick bit of bottom bashing, we set the spread and started trolling, and after a few hours found a good area holding good bait and marking some tuna deep.
After dark we began cruising around that area looking for a good bait stack to start chumming. A small trawler was working a couple of hundred meters away so we began to cruise over and 150m before we got to the trawler, we marked two tuna on the sounder 15m below the boat. Straight into neutral, a couple of bits of chum and a bait over the side, a fish bit with the bait being in the water for a few seconds and we were hooked up!
Will jumped on the rod and put the hurt on the fish. It dug in just below below the boat, just do***ng us, but after a stubborn 2 hour fight we landed a stunning Southern bluefin, around 125kgs on the Scale ruler. An epic very well earned fish for Will.
After a couple of blue sharks, we had another bait eaten right under the boat, me presuming it was a shark cranked it up to the leader straight away within seconds, to our surprise a solid tuna circled out of the darkness before slowing chugging its way down. I harnessed up and started to out the heat on the fish, and had it on the leader in 30 mins. Unfortunately the hook pulled on the leader, but hey, we had hands on the leader it's a caught fish....
It's wasn't too much longer we hooked up again, and I jumped back on the rod. This fish was pulling a good bit of line compared to the last fish. This fish dug in deep but we managed to get it on the boat in just under 2 hours. A pb Southern for me at around the 135kg mark, a solid fish.
After cleaning up from that fish and sorting the boat out we sat back gassed from such an epic session, we marked a solid fish on the sounder. I whacked another bait out and shortly after it got hit.
I have never in my life seen a reel lose line so quickly, the Makaira was absolutely singing, 500 meters of line gone in what felt like seconds under a lot of drag. This fish was a different level entirely. We began to chase the fish and when it kept pulling line despite us chasing it, we knew this was a proper one. Day began to break an hour later and this fish was still a long way off.
Will and I taking turns on the rod, due to both of us being knackered from the rest of the night antics. The hours ticked by and we were putting some serious pressure on this fish, just when we thought we began to beat it, it would just power off again and again. 2.5 hours in it surfaced 30 meters from the boat and it was enormous, a massive tuna. We knew the it had to be a Pacific. Then it powered off and we didn't see it again till we had it at the boat almost 1.5 hours later.
We got the fish up and Will grabbed the leader, and we got a proper look, an absolute monster... After almost 4 hours the fish was buggered, with it unlikely to survive release, so we made the call to take it and sunk the harpoon.
Now came the tricky bit.... Getting it in the boat. After a lot of effort we managed to drag it on deck. We'd done it... A true monster... The biggest tuna species in NZ a Pacific bluefin tuna, absolutely dwarfing anything we'd ever seen before. We estimated the fish around the 180+kg mark. A few photos, and we put the hammer down, back into Greymouth.
A fish I'd only dreamed about one day getting a chance at. And we'd got that chance and made it count.
Makes all those meticulous hours spent spooling reels, splicing topshots, practicing knots till perfection, crimping rigs and everything that goes into landing such a fish so so worth it.
Special shout out to John! Who did a tremendous job on the helm for all the fish.
OKUMA Makaira 50 / CD Rods Sword X and Swordfysher combos holding their own, doing what they were designed too.
